In the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, defending Champions League champions Chelsea host Defending Ligue 1 champions Lille. For Chelsea, the group stage finally ranked second out of the group, and it can be said that it is quite lucky to be able to draw opponents like Lille in the quarter-finals, if bayern and Real Madrid are drawn, it will be enough for Tuchel's team to drink a pot.
In the summer of 2020, because of the epidemic raging, the economy was depressed, and in the environment where many big clubs were tightening their monetary roots, Chelsea, controlled by the Russian billionaire Abu, bucked the trend and invested more than 200 million pounds to bring in a number of strong reinforcements, including Germany's first center Werner, German midfielder Havertz, etc., obviously aiming to win back the Premier League championship. Young Marshal Frank Lampard led the team to poor performance, halfway out of class, Tuchel succeeded.
Tuchel was not a success in Paris, having led the team to the Champions League final the previous season without a chance to win the title, and the following season he dropped the chain early in the Ligue 1 title race. Abu may not have dared to count too much, but in the end he received an unexpected surprise, the Premier League record was not satisfactory, the Champions League all the way to the final, against the title-winning favourite Manchester City, with Havertz's goal, 1:0 win to win the title.
In the Premier League, Werner's standards are obviously not as good as when he played in the Bundesliga, and in the summer of 2021, Chelsea returned to Belgian centre-forward Romelu Lukaku. Lukaku describes himself as the "top five in the world" striker, but he became famous as a "sadistic" striker. After returning to Chelsea, the attributes have basically not changed, the goal production is not satisfactory, the latest Premier League game, not only did not score, the whole game touched the ball only seven times, became a hot topic.
But Tuchel doesn't rely on a center forward to win a game, or a championship trophy. In the Club World Cup final, it was Havertz who scored the killer goal in extra time.
Havertz is arguably Chelsea's most value-for-money signing since Diego Costa. The German guy is 189cm taller than werner (181cm), who plays center forwards, and as an attacking midfielder, Havertz often plays as a winger in the Bundesliga, and it is no problem to play center forwards.
Lille won the Ligue 1 title last season, not on real strength, but on the downturn in Paris, the overall strength of the squad is not necessarily stronger than Marseille, Lyon, Monaco and even Rennes, and this season's Ligue 1 standings have long hovered around 10th. It is not too difficult for Chelsea to beat such an opponent at home.
Chelsea started 343, Havertz was the centre-forward, with Pulisic and Ziyech on both sides, midfielders Alonso, Kovacic, N'Golo Azpilicta, three centre-backs Rudiger, Thiago Silva, Christensen and goalkeeper Mendy.
Lyon started 4231 and David played as a centre-forward. Two orthographic forwards, "seven touches in one game" Lukaku and Werner, both sat on the bench.
After the game began, Chelsea dominated the attack, and in the 8th minute, Chelsea's corner kick from the left, Ziyech drove out, and Havertz's header broke the goal. Chelsea 1-0 Lille.
In the 63rd minute, Chelsea locked in the score at 2:0, N'Golo Kante snatched a clever pass, and Pulisic faced the attacking goalkeeper to pick out the goal.
In the 80th minute, Pulisic was replaced and it was Werner who was replaced, not Romelu Lukaku. Lukaku put the bench through!
Chelsea shot 6 shots on goal 4 shots on target, Lille 9 shots on goal 2 shots on target, the possession rate chelsea 51%, Lille 49%, from the full field data, Chelsea has little advantage, but the offensive efficiency is much higher than the opponent. Havertz played the main force on the front line, and the effect was better than Werner and Lukaku. In this game, Havrtz touched the ball 46 times.