普利西克：里爾難纏，中場前追平非常重要 - 切爾西足球俱樂部 Chelsea Football Club

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2022/03/17/
pulisic-on-his-calming-goal--changes-that-helped-and-our-quarter

Pulisic on his calming goal, changes that helped and our quarter-final
position

17 Mar 2022


Christian Pulisic's strong form continued with another goal to help us
through to the Champions League quarter-finals and afterwards the forward
reflected on the importance of his strike in helping to settle the tie at
a decisive time.


https://i.imgur.com/30u5z9c.jpg


The American struck in stoppage time at the end of the first half with
practically the last kick before the interval, cancelling out Burak
Yilmaz's penalty. It was his third goal in the past four starts for the
Blues and followed his effort in the first leg at Stamford Bridge three
weeks previously.


Combined with Cesar Azpilicueta's close-range finish after the break, it
ensured Thomas Tuchel's men registered a win on the night in northern
France and advance into Friday's last-eight draw as the defence of our
continental crown continues.


Yet faced with a raucous home crowd and falling a goal behind, serious
questions were asked of the visitors for long periods of the game, which
is why Pulisic feels the timing of his tidy strike from a narrow angle was
so crucial.


'It was a really good goal we got right before half-time to calm us down a
bit and in the end we should be proud,' he said. 'It's not easy to get a
result here and we did that. Going into half-time 1-0 down would have been
tough so it was definitely helpful.'


The 23-year-old thanked Jorginho for 'an amazing pass' to assist his goal
but also conceded that the Blues didn't have things all their own way at
the Pierre Mauroy Stadium.


'We know they're a good team and coming here is never easy,' he continued.
'In the first half they were strong and there was a good atmosphere in the
stadium. They put a lot of pressure on us right away.


https://i.imgur.com/j623JWC.jpg
Pulisic was named UEFA's Man of the Match in Lille


'They gave us a lot of trouble and then with the handball penalty they
were back in the game. We made a few changes and were able to calm the
game down a bit with some possession but the goal we scored before
half-time was really important because it restored confidence.'


Reaching the quarter-finals naturally brings plenty excitement about
whether Chelsea might return to France for the Paris final at the end of
the campaign but Pulisic is adamant that there is too much on the
immediate agenda to think that far ahead just yet.


'We're in the quarter-finals - no matter how we did it, it's done,' he
added. 'We're in the top eight teams and that's exactly where we want to
be. There are so many different competitions, so many games and a lot to
playfor so we're just going to keep pushing from here.'

--


Hoddle: 'Matthew will be sitting up there looking down now and

loving Chelsea being winners. He'll just love Chelsea winning.'


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