UCL: Chelsea Book Spot In Last 16

Defending champions, Chelsea have booked their place in the knockout stage of the Champions League with an emphatic 4-0 victory over Juventus at Stamford Bridge, a sweet revenge for their loss in the reverse fixture.

Three homegrown players, Trevor Chalobah, Reece James and Calum Hudson-Odoi were all on target, with Timo Werner, who just returned from injury and playing his first game back completing the routing.

Thomas Tuchel was definitely buzzing after the game and described it as "amazing". The loss of N'Golo Kante and Ben Chilwell to knee injuries was the only blemish on the night for the Premier League log leaders.

Both players are now major doubts for the big one this coming weekend in the league against a Manchester United that is struggling to find its feet. Although, there have been reports that both substitutions, especially that of Kante were precautionary to avoid aggravating the problems.

The Blues were obviously boosted by the return of Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku, who both started on the bench. While the former later came into the game and scored, Lukaku was unused as Tuchel preferred to give him enough time to recuperate, perhaps, ahead of the weekend against Manchester United.

Despite the loss of both strikers at the same time to injury a few weeks ago, Tuchel's side have never looked like they struggled to find the back of the net with goals coming from all angles of the pitch. Only the goalkeeping department is yet to get a goal, albeit, it has been playing its part in ensuring that the defending champions keep clean sheets.

Having lost the reverse fixture by a narrow lone goal, the Blues were definitely buoyed for a revenge and like they have been all season, started on the front foot and didn't take their foot off the gas.

Kante was the first to make things happen as he lobbed a ball into the box from the byline, which was missed first by Hudson-Odoi and then Chilwell, before the left back moments later fired an effort just above the bar.

Chalobah, who has been impressive throughout the season so far would then open the floodgates for the hosts just few minutes after glancing a header wide.

The goal, shrouded in controversy came in the 25th minute of play from a corner kick taken by Hakim Ziyech, who has been linked with a move to Barcelona in recent times. The ball appeared to have hit Antonio Rudiger in the hand before finding its way to Chalobah, whose sweeping rising effort was unstoppable by Wojciech Szczesny. VAR reviewed and gave the goal, much to the chagrin of the Juventus players, understandably so.

Three minutes after Chelsea took the lead, Juventus were micro seconds away from drawing level when Thiago Silva acrobatically cleared the line.

Alvaro Morata had lobbed the ball over the advancing Edouard Mendy, but Silva showed a teenager's pace and agility to clear the ball just at the nick of time with a bicycle kick.

Read the Concluding part here