Champions League: Chelsea beat Lille; Villarreal hold Juventus

By
Triyasha Chatterjee
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London: Chelsea secured a 2-0 victory over Lille in the first leg of the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League. At the same time, elsewhere Juventus held Unai Emery’s Villareal to a 1-1 draw.

 

Chelsea being dominating from the first half itself, opened the scoring through Kai Havertz. The former Bayer Liverkusen player, headed in a sublime effort by Hakim Ziyech from the left flank. The goal put the Blues ahead as early as the eighth minute. Although Lille were on top majority of the time, they failed to find the equalizer.

Chelsea double their lead over the opponents coming from the break. Though the goal was credited to Christian Pulisic who chipped it over the custodian’s head, it was N’Golo Kante who orchestrated the whole process. The French midfielder, surged through the midfield of the opponents to provide Pulisic with the delivery. Despite numerous continuous efforts of the other side, they could not register any goal on the score sheet for the night.

Elsewhere, at El Madrigal, Serie A sensation, Susan Vlahovic scored in 32 seconds of his Champions League debut to give Juventus a lead against Unai Emery’s Villareal. Catching on a lose ball, Vlahovic shot it with power firing across into the far post.

Villareal could have had the equalizer soon after, through Gerard Moreno, but the forward shot it far off wide. The much anticipated goal came in the 66th minute. Dani Parejo took a beautiful run across the field, slotting it past Szczesny. The Juventus custodian were made to make several saves from Lo Celso and others to defend the score line. The teams meet again on the 17th of March at Juventus stadium.

 

 

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