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Apoorv Dwivedi
UEFA Champion’s league pre-quarterfinals resumed last night with two matches being played. Defending champions Chelsea made a case for themselves while Juventus Turin had to satisfy itself with a draw in the first leg matches.
Match 1 Chelsea vs Lille
Going up against the French club Lille at their home ground, Stamford Bridge. Chelsea was expected to win and they did. Both teams played possession-based football and kept the ball with them for nearly an equal amount of time. Chelsea’s possession was 51% while Lille had the ball for 49%.
Kai Havertz opened the scoring in the 8th minute. He has been in sublime form this season. Lille tried to attack in the match but Chelsea’s defense was too good for them as they could manage only 2 shots on target.
American player Christian Pulisic scored the second goal in the 63rd minute to extend the lead further. Lille will play Chelsea next in their home ground Stade Pierre-Mauroy with an aggregate deficit of 0-2. The match will be played on 17th March.
Match 2 Villarreal vs Juventus
Juventus did not enjoy their trip to Spain as they had to settle for a 1-1 draw in their first leg encounter. Dusan Vlahovic playing in his UCL debut scored in 32 seconds of the match. This is one of the fastest goals in Football history.
Juventus couldn’t keep up the same momentum in the second half. Daniel Parejo scored in the 66th minute of the match to equalize the score for Villarreal and the team kept maximum possession(55%). One interesting deployment was of Alfonso Pedraza. The left-legged winger played as a left-back defender last night.
Villarreal, last year’s Europa League Champions, have everything to play for when they pay a visit to Juventus in Turin, Italy for the second leg on 17th March.
In case the score is equal after the second leg. The match will be decided by a penalty shoot-out. Five players from each team take spot-kicks and the team which scores the maximum number of times wins. In case of an equal score on penalties, the match goes into sudden death and any team which misses first is eliminated.