Chelsea FC will welcome LOSC Lille to the intimidating Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night in what is a big match for both clubs and their European hopes this season.

Chelsea will come into the match having triumphed over Brazillian champions Palmeiras to win the club world cup as well as winning a London derby on Saturday afternoon against Crystal Palace.

Chelsea managed to finish second in their champions league group just two points behind Juventus. They had several negative results including a disappointing three all draw away at Zenit St Petersburg and a one-nil defeat to Juventus in Turin.

Meanwhile, Lille will come into the match off a mixed bag of results in ligue 1 having won by one goal to nil against Montpellier on the 12th of February before playing out a miserable nil-all draw against FC Netz on Saturday.

Lille unlike Chelsea finished top of their champions league group with teams such as RB Salzburg, Europa league specialists Sevilla and VFL Wolfsburg competing against them. Their most impressive result was a three goal to one victory away at Wolfsburg.

Team news

Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel has got several injury concerns ahead of the match with Lille on Wednesday. Mason Mount picked up an ankle injury meaning he will miss out on Wednesday along with full back Reece James while Callum Hudson-Odoi and Cesar Azpilicueta are also doubts.

Lille head coach Jocelyn Gourvennec has got one injury concern with Angel Gomez having to be taken off after just 27 minutes on Saturday. Midfield Maestro Renato Sanches is expected to start along with Talismanic Canadian striker Jonathan David while first-choice right-back Zeki Çelik is also expected to return.

Predicted Lineups

Chelsea: Mendy; Christensen, Silva, Rudiger; Azpilicueta, Jorginho, Kovacic, Alonso; Ziyech, Havertz; Werner

Lille: Jardim; Çelik, Fonte, Botman, Gudmundsson; Sanches, André, Xeka, Bamba; David, Yilmaz

Players to watch

Romelu Lukaku

Romelu Lukaku has had a horrid time in front of goal recently with him failing to score for a few matches however since Chelsea's club world cup campaign he has started to rediscover his form that prompted Chelsea to sign him.

Lukaku scored in the win against Al-Hilal as well as getting the first goal in the final against Palmeiras, it means he is still the club's top goalscorer this season with 10 goals. Lukaku managed to get two goals in the group stages and will be hoping to get a few more.

Jonathan David

Lille are having a horrid time currently domestically with them sitting in 11th place and seemingly out of the hunt for a eruopean place. However their situation would be a lot worse if it wasn't for Talismanic Canadian forward David.

David is the club's top scorer this season with 15 goals and will be the main threat that Chelsea will have to deal with. David is a tall strong and fast striker and very comfortable shooting with both feet meaning that the Chelsea defence will have to be on their toes.

Last time out

The last time these two teams faced each other was in the group stages of the champions league in 2019 in which Chelsea ran out two one winners.

Chelsea started the match quickly and asserted their dominance over Lille and the pressure eventually told when they managed to score their first goal in the 19th minute. Willian did brilliantly on the wing before passing the ball to striker Tammy Abraham whose strike from close to the goal found the back of the net.

Lille tried to respond the goal and got a great chance five minutes later. Jorginho fouled one of the Lille players which resulted in a free kick in a dangerous position. Lille took the free-kick quickly and Jérémy Pied had a shot from outside the box but it went high and wide.

However Chelsea got a second 11 minutes later to put them in cruise control of the tie. Lille defender  Zeki Çelik conceded a corner which chelsea took quickly short to Emerson palmieri, who whipped  a wicked ball into the box that Azpilicueta managed to get his head on the end of to put Chelsea to nil up going into half time.

The second half was much cagier than the first with Chelsea wanting to preserve their two-goal lead. Chelsea's best chance of the second half came in the 73rd minute. N'Golo Kante did brilliant work in midfield before passing the ball to Mateo Kovacic who unleashed a venomous shot towards the Lille goal however the keeper made a brilliant save.

But their was late drama and maybe a chance of a comeback when five minutes later out of nowhere Lille scored their first goal of the match. Jonathan Bamba made great progress down the wing before slipping a ball through to Loic Remy who dispatched his shot into the top left-hand corner giving Kepa Arrizabalaga no chance.

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