O Chelsea reversed the advantage of Borussia Dortmund and secured their qualification to the quarterfinals of the Champions League, this Tuesday. The English defeated the Germans in London, by 2-0, after losing by the minimum score in the first leg, and were left with the vacancy. The goals were scored by Sterling and Havertz.
The London team pressed on in the early stages, but only managed to break the deadlock in the final minutes. Havertz completed the penalty kick in the second half. The team still had two goals annulled for offside, one in each half.
The Blues now join the Benfica as the first two clubs classified to the next phase of the competition. The Encarnados dispatched Club Brugge shortly before, by 7-1 on aggregate. Both are waiting for the other clashes of the round of 16 to know their opponents in the next stage.
The duels will be defined through a draw, which is scheduled to take place on March 17. From there, the ranking of the tournament will be designed until the decision. The Champions League final will be played on June 10 at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey.
Meanwhile, Chelsea turn their attention to the English Championship, where he faces Leicester City this Saturday, at 12:00 (Brasília time). Dortmund, on the other hand, has a derby against Schalke 04 ahead of them, German Championship. The game will be on the same date, at 2:30 pm.
How was the game?
Pressured by the aggregate disadvantage, Chelsea opened the game with less than a minute on the clock, at Sterling’s feet. The attacker received a launch and had an open field to start a counterattack, but he took a while to decide what to do and ended up wasting the chance.
Dortmund responded in the 16th minute, with a beautiful free-kick from Reus. The German hit perfectly and covered the barrier, but Kepa jumped to flatten it. At 27, it was Havertz’s turn to almost score for the English team. The player took advantage of the defender’s cut and kicked hard, but saw the ball hit the crossbar, cross the line and not enter the goal.
Havertz even scored in the 37th minute. After Sterling’s shot was saved by Meyer, the attacker sent a bomb towards the goal, but the attempt was canceled due to offside at the beginning of the play. In the next move, at 39 minutes, Koulibaly completed a header in a corner, but Meyer saved it. On the rebound, João Félix lost.
The owners of the house continued to press and arrived with danger once again at 41, in a finish by Chiwell who passed by the side. The muffled result at 43, when the same Chilwell crossed to Sterling, in the area. The player punctured, but managed to keep the ball and puffed up the net: 1 to 0 in favor of Chelsea.
In the first minute after the break, Chilwell crossed the bottom line and the ball hit Wolf’s hand, inside the area. After a long time of analysis, the referee went to VAR and detected the penalty. In the collection, Havertz displaced the goalkeeper, but hit the post.
Again with the help of VAR, the referee caught the penalty kick and ordered the penalty to be repeated. This time, Havertz did not forgive and scored Chelsea’s second.
Dortmund almost discounted at 12, with Bellingham. The midfielder was left with plenty in the small area, but kicked close to the crossbar. Shortly after, at 18, Wolf invaded the area and kicked hard, crossed, but Kepa defended.
The Blues again had a goal invalidated in the 30th minute. Sterling was thrown deep and rolled to Gallagher, who only had the trouble to touch the empty net. However, once again, the attacker was ahead of the last defender.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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