Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic found the back of the net either side of the half-time intervalas Chelsea took a big step towards the quarterfinal stage as far as this season's Champions League campaign is concerned. Chelsea are the defending champions and they took a step closer to fulfilling their quest to become only the second team to retain the Champions League title with a very good first leg performance against Lille.

Real Madrid became the first team to retain the Champions League title at the end of the2016/17 season. The Spanish La Liga giants won the Champions League title during the 2015/16 season before they successfully defended their title in the following season. Real Madrid then made it a hat-trick of Champions League titles in the next season.

Chelsea are on course to match the record of retaining the Champions League title, but they have to navigate the second leg clash with Lille in France on Wednesday, March 16.

West London giants Chelsea should have taken the lead earlier than they did when German international Kai Havertz missed a sitter. The ex-Bayer Leverkusen star was selected to lead the Chelsea attack ahead of record signing RomeluLukaku who struggled to have any impact during the 1-0 London Derby win at Crystal Palace in the league. Lukaku had seven touches during the Palace game as the all-time Belgian leading goalscorerset a new record.

Havertz made up for the sitter missed in the opening minutes of the game by scoring from the corner kick taken by Moroccan player Hakim Ziyech in the seventh minute. The goal from Havertz ensured that Chelsea went into the break with a lead. American star Pulisic doubled the lead on 63 minutes after an impressive run from N’GoloKante to ensure that the Blues will take a good lead to France ahead of the second leg next month.