Chelsea ‘belongs in the Champions League’ as Andreas Christensen backs club to reach Last 16

One win away | Chelsea will book their place in the knockout stages by beating Lille at Stamford Bridge
AFP via Getty Images/Javier Soriano
James Olley28 November 2019

Andreas Christensen has backed Chelsea to stay “where we belong” by reaching the Champions League last 16 with victory over Lille.

The Blues must beat the Ligue 1 side at Stamford Bridge on December 10 to guarantee qualification for the knockout stages after missing out on securing their spot with a 2-2 draw in Valencia.

That result, combined with Ajax’s 2-0 win over Lille, leaves Chelsea’s hopes hanging in the balance but Christensen insisted he is confident they can finish the job.

“We wanted to have a little bit more control at the end,” he told Standard Sport. “But we hung in there and got a good result in a difficult place. Now it is up to ourselves at home to go through. I think we can be happy with that situation even though we wanted to finish it off here.

“Qualification would be massive for us. We look at ourselves as a team that belongs in the Champions League. That was the message before the game and was why we wanted to finish it off.

In Pictures | Valencia vs Chelsea | 27/11/2019

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“We don’t want to wait but we had in our minds if it was tight at the end, we didn’t want to do anything stupid because we fancy ourselves at home. We will just look at ourselves.”

Carlos Soler put Valencia in front before Mateo Kovacic scored his first goal for Chelsea – and first anywhere since January 2017 – to equalise just 108 seconds later.

In a breathless second half, Christian Pulisic opened his Champions League account with a goal which survived a lengthy VAR review before Daniel Parejo was bailed out for missing a second half penalty by Daniel Wass, who found the net by luck with an 82nd-minute cross.

Tammy Abraham will be assessed today after suffering a hip problem, although fears have eased after the 22-year-old left the pitch at half-time in tears on a stretcher.

It is understood he has suffered bruising around the hip, the severity of which will be determined later today but Christensen believes in Michy Batshuayi and Olivier Giroud, Chelsea have the firepower to cope if Abraham is ruled out for an extended period.

“We have two other strikers who are more than capable of going on the pitch and being at that level,” said the 23-year-old, who started his first game for almost two months following a hamstring problem.

“I didn’t actually see what happened to Tammy, but hopefully he is not too bad. The other two are more than capable of playing their part.

“I have been training a lot with them. I’ve been injured, but been preparing to come back into the team as they have as well. I think you’re going to see, whoever plays, that they’re very eager to come back. They know it’s their time to shine. We are all looking sharp and that’s why we can press like we do in every game.”

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