Thomas Tuchel revealed he took Chelsea’s club-record signing Romelu Lukaku out of the firing line for the 2-0 Champions League win over Lille.
Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic hit the web as Chelsea produced a wonderful last-16 first-leg victory at Stamford Bridge, with £98million striker Lukaku an unused substitute.
Lukaku had registered a Premier League record-low seven touches in Saturday’s 1-0 win at Crystal Palace, amid continued struggles to seek out his west London area of interest.
Havertz and Pulisic starred as Champions League holders Chelsea put one foot within the quarter-finals, earlier than boss Tuchel defined his resolution to guard his talismanic Belgian striker.
“It was not the second after the match the place everybody was targeted on his few touches, so it was not the second to place him into the following hearth,” stated Tuchel.
“It was the second to take a step again, that was the choice and that’s it. We now have now had a robust win and a robust efficiency.
“We now have now had a great win – and all of the questions are nonetheless about Romelu, so the main target is large. There are 9 different gamers who didn’t play and we must always always remember that we think about this sport a crew sport.”
Chelsea will head to Lille on March 16 assured of progressing but additional in Europe, however earlier than all that may pitch up at Wembley on Sunday for the Carabao Cup ultimate towards Liverpool.
Hakim Ziyech and Mateo Kovacic hobbled out of the excellent win over Lille, however Chelsea hope neither in-form star has suffered an enduring harm.
Germany ahead Havertz continued his wonderful run of kind, having netted the winner from the penalty spot within the 2-1 Membership World Cup ultimate victory over Palmeiras.
Tuchel heaped the reward on the £80million ahead, who nodded residence an early purpose in a wonderful all-round efficiency.
“For Kai, I’m more than happy, he’s been very robust for weeks now,” stated Tuchel.
“He has actually stepped up and his effort is immense, his work fee is immense, and the quantity, the areas of the pitch that he covers for us may be very, excellent.
“He was once more decisive, he created probabilities, bought concerned and was by no means shy of defending. We performed with a really aggressive excessive line with Hakim, with all three offensive gamers collectively.
“It was the formation to have depth, and a excessive work fee constantly all through the entire match they usually all did very nicely.”
Lille supervisor Jocelyn Gourvennec was left to rue his aspect failing to benefit from forcing close to parity in possession.
“After all we’re disenchanted to lose by two objectives, the remorse is conceding avoidable objectives,” stated Gourvennec.
“We weren’t overwhelmed by unbelievable objectives, it was from a nook and an excellent transfer. It’s robust to take a 2-0 loss after what we created.
“Chelsea all the time take management of video games and maintain possession, however we did nicely in possession, it was virtually 50-50 which reveals we have been a part of this sport.
“Perhaps we may have been extra environment friendly, they usually have been very medical themselves once they had probabilities. They made only a few errors and those that we made price us.”
Kaynak: briturkish.com
