The Chelseawhich won 2-1 in Lille, and the Villarrealwho won 3-0 in Turin to consummate a new failure for Juventus, got the last two tickets at stake for the quarterfinals of the Champions League, this Wednesday on the closing day of the round of 16.
England and Spain will therefore have three clubs each in Friday’s draw, having previously made it to the quarterfinals on Manchester Citythe Liverpoolthe Real Madrid and the Atletico Madrid.
Juventus was the most illustrious victim on Wednesday, being knocked out again in the round of 16, for the third consecutive year, and disappointing their “tifosi” by losing to the current champion of the Europe League in a painful way.
Two penalty goals from Gerard Moreno (78) and Arnaut Danjuma (90+2) and a goal from Pau Torres (85) gave Villarreal a pass to the next round, making it 4-1 on aggregate in the tie, after the 1-1 draw in the first leg at the La Cerámica stadium.
Villarreal reaches the quarterfinals for the third time in its history and, by the way, completes the full list of Spanish teams in this round, after qualifying for Atlético de Madrid on Tuesday and for Real Madrid last week.
“I’m in love with the Europa League, but I also want to enjoy the Champions League,” Villarreal coach Unai Emery was excited.
After almost 80 minutes of suffering, Villarreal decided in the final stretch.
Gerard Moreno paved the way by transforming a maximum penalty (78).
Juventus then went on the attack, which allowed Villarreal to take advantage of the spaces left by the locals to reach everything that had not arrived before.
Pau Torres headed a corner kick to make it 2-0 (85) which ended up discouraging Juventus.
With Juventus completely exhausted and with time expired, Arnaut Danjuma converted a new penalty after a handball in the area by Matthijs De Ligt (90+2) to make it 3-0 final and leave Italy without clubs in this Champions League.
“We had chances in the first half, but it was more complicated in the second because they closed a lot,” said the Juve coach, Massimiliano Allegri.
The champion meets
In the other match of the day, at the Pierre Mauroy stadium in Villeneuve d’Ascq, defending champions Chelsea won 2-1 at Lille, whom they had already beaten 2-0 in the first leg in England.
Lille dreamed of a comeback when the Turkish Burak Yilmaz put his team ahead in the second leg by converting a penalty in the 38th minute, but the reigning European champion put out the fire later, with goals from the American Christian Pulisic (45+3) and of the Spaniard César Azpilicueta (71).
Pulisic was the hero of the tie for Chelsea, as he also scored one of the goals in the first leg win.
Chelsea’s qualification for the quarterfinals is a joy for the club in the midst of the complicated situation it has been experiencing in recent weeks after the sanctions on its Russian owner Roman Abramovich as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The sale of the club, initially announced by Abramovich, was blocked by the measures taken to freeze the businessman’s assets.
“We deserve to go through to the quarterfinals, we’re going to fight and adapt to situations. We’ll play with pride and a good attitude. I’m not sure what’s going to happen to us, but I can say we’re going to adapt,” said Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel, on the particular situation that the entity is going through.
For its part, Lille, current champion of France and the last team from their country in contention in the competition, is dropped from the top European tournament and will now have to focus their efforts on Ligue 1, where they are sixth, seven points behind Nice (3rd), which currently marks the qualifying zone for the next Champions League.