Tuchel's firefighting skills offer Chelsea hope of final repeat

Blues boss determined to deliver in Europe despite turmoil at club

- James Robson

THERE is something about the Champions League, Thomas Tuchel and adversity that just works. It is a heady cocktail, a perfect storm of sorts.

And Chelsea can only hope history repeats itself in club football's biggest competition.

Tuchel's side faces Lille tonight in the second leg of their round-of-16 tie, which they lead 2-0 at the halfway stage.

It would take a remarkable collapse for them to fail to reach the quarter-final stage and move a step closer to retaining the trophy they won in Porto last May. Yet preparations for this match could hardly have been more testing.

A lot has happened since the first leg last month.

In that time, Roman Abramovich has tried and failed to hand over stewardship of the club, put it up for sale, been sanctioned, and had his assets including the club - frozen.

Chelsea are still coming to terms with the fallout of that, including restrictions on their travel budget that even led to Kai Havertz offering to pay his own way to Middlesbrough on Saturday.

Yesterday, the club was forced into an embarrassing climbdown after requesting that FA Cup match be played behind closed doors because the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport has so far refused to lift a ban on the sale of tickets.

The trip to Lille has been largely unaffected by the sanctions simply by virtue of Chelsea having already booked and paid for travel arrangements before last week's sanctions. But progress raises very serious questions about how Tuchel and his team will be able to travel to potential destinations such as Madrid, Turin, Munich, or Lisbon on a shoestring budget.

Such wider concerns mean Tuchel's addresses to the media are dominated by matters other than football, which he has greeted with grace and diplomacy that have only seen his reputation soar. But how he would love to just be able to concentrate on his day job.