90min

Twitter reacts as Chelsea see off Lille & Juventus held by Villarreal

By Tom Gott

Juventus surrendered a lead against Villarreal
Juventus surrendered a lead against Villarreal / Soccrates Images/GettyImages
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Tuesday night got off to a bright start for both Chelsea and Juventus, who were in action in their Champions League last 16 first leg bouts against Lille and Villarreal respectively.

In fact, 'got off to a bright start' is a bit of an understatement as far as Juve are concerned.

January signing Dusan Vlahovic needed just 32 seconds of his Champions League debut to net what will probably go down as the best goal of the round, chesting down a long ball before firing a half-volley on the turn. It was a new competition record.

Chelsea needed to wait a little longer for their own wonderkid striker to find the back of the net.

Kai Havertz, starting in place of the benched Romelu Lukaku, was electric inside the opening ten minutes and could have easily had a hat-trick, but he had to settle for just his eighth-minute header, which came from a Hakim Ziyech corner.

While Chelsea fans were enjoying watching their side control their lead, the same couldn't be said for Juventus.

Max Allegri's famously cautious tactics didn't sit well with supporters, who watched Juventus sit deep and invite an obscene amount of pressure for the remainder of the first half.

Meanwhile, Havertz was still balling out.

The Havertz vs. Lukaku debate was all over Twitter, and while there were some supportive shouts for the Belgian, this one was a no-contest.

We hit half time, and the moods could hardly have been more different.

Whereas over at Stamford Bridge...

Juventus' refusal to push for a second goal eventually came back to bite them in the second half.

Despite being tasked solely with defending, Adrien Rabiot forgot to do some defending and allowed Dani Parejo to waltz away from him and slot home the most deserving of equalisers in the 66th minute.

And at almost exactly the same time, Chelsea were celebrating.

Some outstanding midfield work from the typically brilliant N'Golo Kante saw the ball played through to Christian Pulisic, who made no mistake with his composed finish that bent around Leo Jardim and into the bottom corner of the net.

Chelsea would see out that victory, although losing Mateo Kovacic and Hakim Ziyech to injuries in the second half did put a dampener on things.

Nevertheless, Twitter was a pretty positive place to be if you're a Chelsea fan.

Meanwhile, on Juventus Twitter...

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