That performance would not appear in an accompanying brochure, but Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Lille on Wednesday gave potential new owners a timely reminder of the winning machine they set up to buy.
With 38 minutes played, seemingly due to lack of experience, Burak Yilmaz needlessly tripped an opponent just outside the penalty area, but the free kick that followed didn’t succeed. second half by Cesar Azpilicueta eased them into the break. Champions League quarterfinals.
The draw takes place in Nyon on Friday, hours before the deadline set by New York-based Commercial Bank Raine Group for interested parties to buy their formal bid for world and European champions, valued by owner Roman Abramovich at £ 3 Billion.
They are still buying a team that competes in Europe with the kind of display that underlines their pedigree at this level: finding a way to reach their goal despite an overwhelming 90 minutes because they still collected enough quality in the last third to their flight but to send limited hosts.
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The preparations were not easy. Chelsea’s last visit to the pitch in October 2019 – also a 2-1 win but then in the group stage under Thomas Tuchel’s predecessor Frank Lampard – was overshadowed by a series that emerged from images showing midfielder Ross Barkley, eat and argue a kebab and chips. with a taxi driver in Liverpool a few days earlier.
Catering and travel are still issues on the agenda but with much more urgency these days, due to the restrictions imposed on them as part of the license granted by the UK government to continue operating after the Abramowitsch sanctions for alleged links with Russian President Vladimir. Do it.
The club’s travel plans for Lille were finalized before last Thursday’s government intervention, but Tuchel had barely taken his seat at his post-match press conference before being presented with the final difficulty, UEFA showing a likelihood that Chelsea will not be able to get tickets sales for the quarter-finals were just reached as a result of Abramovich being sanctioned by the European Union on Tuesday.
“Thank you for ruining my evening,” Tuchel replied as he heard the news, moments after celebrating with the traveling support housed in the top tower of goal, which they attacked in the second half. , a moment of oneness that he still experiences for a time. .
The sympathetic and erudite German continues to navigate a devilishly difficult path expert in his role as part-coach, part-ambassador.
New owners often want to install their own head coach but it’s hard to imagine a coach handling these spells better than Tuchel, especially given results have remained positive since Abramovich first hinted at a split the day before Chelsea v Liverpool in last month’s Carabao Cup final. .
The Blues have lost that game – with the best playing time in a penalty shootout – but have since beaten Luton Town, Burnley, Norwich City, Newcastle United and now Lille in a run that beats the heart of the culture that fosters the club becomes. over many years, something that is long before Tuchel’s arrival.
“We are all competitors and I have always experienced from day one when I was part of the family, a very competitive spirit and a very competitive club,” said Tuchel.
“Chelsea is so clear about what it requires of every employee and every player: play your role, play to the limit, live up to it and take your responsibility.
“This is what Chelsea is about and it sharpens your mentality and brings out the best in you because it’s normal to do it everyday. Because this mentality has been installed over years and years, over decades, so it’s possible we can concentrate remain.
“It plays a big role why we can produce results like we do at the moment when things are uncertain and volatile around us – because it’s already there.”
Some expected them to beat Manchester City in the Champions League final last season and they were even more surprising winners of the competition in 2012 when they changed managers in the middle of the season.
They continued to win, however. The source of Abramovich’s wealth has generated a debate over the purity of Chelsea’s success over the past two decades, but no one can deny the efficiency with which they have delivered silverware: Their 21 trophies since Abramovich bought the club in 2003 are unsurpassed in England.
There was, however, a certain passivity to be shown here. Tuchel took the unusual opportunity to adopt a 3-5-2 system to get an additional central midfielder, presumably to reach central areas and disrupt Lille.
In the end, it seems only to contribute to a pedestrian exhibition, in which they hardly threatened, before Jorginho, a £ 50 million signature, a pass to Pulisic, a £ 57.6m signature, to combine a moment of class Lille simply could not Match.
“Champions of Europe, we know what we are,” the away fans sang, suddenly hearing for the first time all night how Pulisic had given up all hope of excitement.
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