Chelsea came into the game against Lille as the favourites last night and when the game played out, it soon became clear why. They were the dominant team with a nice 2-0 win over the French side to take into the second leg, establishing why they’re once again amongst the favourites in this season’s competition.
Today, we’re going to take a look at a few things we’ve learnt in the aftermath of the first leg.
A few issues for the Blues
The Champions League is of vital importance to every team involved in it but with the League Cup final to come this Sunday, Chelsea would’ve been keeping one eye on their star players. Unfortunately for them, they ran into a few problems in the form of Hakim Ziyech and Mateo Kovacic. For now, fans will have to sit back and wait to see whether or not they’ll be fit in time to feature for Thomas Tuchel’s men at Wembley.
Lille show spirit
They may not have overly troubled the hosts but with 15 shots, they still showcased enough activity to prove that they’re exciting when they want to be. In reality they had to focus their attention on keeping the score down heading into the return leg and that should offer up some reason for confidence, or at the very least, reason to absolutely go for it with the kind of freedom every Champions League team should have.
European champions for a reason
Chelsea were in cruise control for long spells and a big part of that is due to the structure of the first team. They were slick with their passing, calm in possession and picked their moments going forward. A 2-0 win screams “professional outing” to many and that’s what we saw here, which is why we don’t think they’ll have too much trouble when attempting to hold onto this advantage.
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