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Chelsea, Villarreal win, Champions League quarterfinals set
- Chelsea defeated Lille 2-1
- Villarreal beat Juventues 3-0
- The draw for the Champions League quarterfinals will be held Friday
Chelsea and Villarreal scored important wins on Wednesday as the Champions League now is ready to enter its last-eight stage.
Reigning champions Chelsea, amid unertainity about their future, progress with a 2-1 win at Lille, and 4-1 on aggregate. US international Christian Pulisic converted one rare chance and Cesar Azpilicueta added another goal.
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Juventus, on the other hand, were eliminated by Villarreal. This is their third straight eliminations at home in the Champions League round of 16. The Spanish outfit won 3-0.
Pulisic canceled out a penalty from Burak Ylmaz with a goal at the stroke of halftime and Azpilicueta scored the winner in the 71st minute.
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“They gave us a lot of problems in the first half,” Pulisic said. “It was a really important goal right before the half, and from there I think it gave us some confidence.”
For Villarreal, who advanced on a 4-1 aggregate, substitute Gerard Moreno converted a penalty in the 78th minute to break the deadlock following a 1-1 draw in the first leg.
Then Pau Torres was left unmarked to redirect in a corner before Arnaut Danjuma added another spot kick.
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“For 75 minutes the squad did well,” Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said. “Then a single episode changed the match. These things happen in soccer and we have to accept this heavy loss.”
Allegri returned to Juventus this season after Maurizio Sarri and Andrea Pirlo coached the Bianconeri during defeats to Lyon and Porto at this stage over the last two seasons, respectively.
Including a quarterfinal defeat to Ajax in 2019, it’s the fourth straight time that Juventus has been knocked out after a home second-leg match.
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“We have to improve in scoring goals when we are dominating games like tonight,” Juventus defender Danilo said. “We made another mistake after their first goal. We still had time to equalize and bring the game to extra time but we all went forward and they punished us.”
The draw for the quarterfinals will be held Friday.
Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Benfica also advanced to the last eight.
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