Chelsea put their off-field troubles aside to seal a place in the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday as a Cesar Azpilicueta goal clinched a 2-1 win at Lille in the second leg of their last-16 tie, and a 4-1 aggregate victory.
Coach Thomas Tuchel had insisted there could be no excuses for his team despite the Blues being left in turmoil after Roman Abramovich’s assets were frozen, with Chelsea only being allowed to continue operating by the British government under a special licence.
They have been banned from selling tickets and were told they could not spend more than £20,000 ($26,300) per match on travel costs, throwing their plans for this trip across the English Channel into some disarray.
Before kick-off on Wednesday it emerged that the Ricketts family, owners of Major League Baseball team the Chicago Cubs, were leading a consortium looking to buy the club while British athletics great Sebastian Coe announced his involvement in a rival bid.
On the pitch, Lille looked determined to add to Chelsea’s woes as they started at an excellent tempo and Yilmaz twice came close in the early stages.
The visitors lost Danish defender Andreas Christensen to injury just after the half-hour mark, and his replacement, Trevoh Chalobah, was booked for pulling down Jonathan David within seconds of coming on.
Lille then won a penalty in the 38th minute when Italian referee Davide Massa was alerted by the VAR to a handball in the box by Jorginho.
He pointed to the spot after reviewing the images, and veteran Turkish striker Yilmaz made no mistake.
Yet the home side, crucially, could not hold their lead until the break.
In the third added minute, Jorginho slid a terrific pass into the path of Pulisic in the box, and the United States international found the far corner.
That took the sting out of the game and Lille’s remaining hopes of a comeback were ended when they lost two of their defenders, Zeki Celik and Sven Botman, to injury just before the hour mark.
Xeka rattled the post with a header from a Yilmaz cross in the 63rd minute but just like their only previous last-16 appearance – a defeat by Manchester United in 2007 – Lille found English opposition to be just too strong.
Chelsea got their second goal when substitute Mason Mount’s cross from the left was turned in by the knee of Azpilicueta at the back post, and the skipper ran across to celebrate with the travelling support high in the far corner of the Stade Pierre-Mauroy.
In the other game, Villarreal reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League on Wednesday after inflicting a humiliating 3-0 defeat on Juventus in Turin to go through 4-1 on aggregate.
Penalties from Gerard Moreno and Arnaut Danjuma and Pau Torres’ tap-in in the final quarter of an hour were enough for Unai Emery’s well-organised side to see off the Italians at the Allianz Stadium and make Friday’s last-eight draw.
Missing a host of starters and with Paulo Dybala, Giorgio Chiellini and Federico Bernardeschi only on the bench, Juve started well and had the first opportunity in the 11th minute of a breathless first half when Alvaro Morata had his powerful header well saved by Geronimo Rulli.
Two minutes later, Morata was involved again when he and Juan Cuadrado, who had supplied the cross for the Spaniard’s header moments before, stepped on each other’s toes and allowed a huge chance to shoot go begging.
Then Dusan Vlahovic had a long-range drive pushed aside before he was denied by the crossbar, his first-time strike from Mattia De Sciglio’s cross beating Rulli but thwacking out off the woodwork in the 21st minute.
Juve were almost punished for their inability to put away their chances seconds later when Giovani Lo Celso charged forward with teammates swarming into the home team’s box and with options to either side curled a shot just wide.
Villarreal clearly decided to shut up shop in the early minutes of the second half in the hope of stemming the flow of Juve chances and the game slowed down to almost a crawl until Adrien Rabiot thumped an effort from distance at Rulli and Cuadrado fired wide on the hour.
The away side easily held Juve at bay for the rest of the match and when Francis Coquelin was clumsily brought down by Daniele Rugani, substitute Moreno was fresh enough to send his spot kick past Wojciech Szczesny with 12 minutes remaining.
Moreno’s goal, which came after referee Szymon Marciniak’s pitchside video check, deflated the crowd and when Torres pushed home the second from Serge Aurier’s cross in the 85th minute the game was well and truly up.
The boos began to ring around the stadium, and they only got louder when Matthijs de Ligt charged down Danjuma’s shot with his arm in the closing moments and the Netherlands international made it a perfect evening for Villarreal, and a nightmare for Juve.
