Chelsea begin title defense in Champions League in 16th round

Havana, February 22 (RHC)-- Chelsea will begin the defense of its Champions League title today, when it receives the visit of French side Lille in the round of 16 stage, which began last week.

The reigning champions of Europe's premier club soccer competition reach this stage after qualifying in second place in Group H with 13 points, the result of four wins, one draw and one defeat, behind Juventus, who accumulated 15 points.

Lille dominated segment G to reach this stage with 11 points, one more than Salzburg, which advanced in second place and drew 1-1 in their match against Bayern Munich.

While the French team will pin its hopes on the work of Burak Yilmaz and Jhonatan David in the attacking line, Chelsea, with almost the entire squad at the coach's disposal, will have its usual mosaic of offensive variants.

The team led by German coach Tomas Tuchel is in third place in the English League with 50 points, 13 behind first place Manchester City with 63, while Lille remains in 11th place in Ligue 1 with 35 points.

These teams have already met in a similar instance in 2019, when the English capital won both matches with identical scores of two goals to one.

In the other match of the day, Juventus will visit Spanish Villarreal, in an extremely interesting match due to the current state of both teams.