Chelsea beat Lille 2-1 away from home to advance to the Champions League quarterfinals after completing a 4-1 aggregate win.
Goals from Christian Pulisic and César Azpilicueta were enough to cancel out a Burak Yılmaz penalty to see the Londoners through to the next round.
A 2-0 first-leg advantage for Chelsea was threatened by a spirited Lille but not breached until the 38th minute.
Jocelyn Gouvennec’s side put Chelsea on the back foot as Mateo Kovacic, Jorginho and N’Golo Kante struggled to take control of the midfield. It was Jorginho who was judged to have handled the ball inside the penalty area to give Lille their most clear goal-scoring chance.
The 36-year-old Yilmaz, the third oldest scorer in the Champions League knockout stages after Paolo Maldini and Ryan Giggs, buried the spot-kick to revive the hosts’ chances of an upset.
Their hopes were short-lived as Chelsea breached a Lille defense who had not conceded a goal in their three Ligue 1 games since the first leg. Pulisic collected a fine through ball from Jorginho to score from Chelsea’s first shot on goal three minutes into first-half stoppage time.
Chelsea were not out of danger as Lille continued to look for a goal after the break with Yilmaz wasting two clear chances.
The visitors put the tie to bed on the 71st minute as Mount’s cross found Azpilicueta’s knee in the far corner to end Lille’s hopes of reaching the quarterfinals.
Chelsea beat Lille to complete the 8 teams still alive in the competition. Other teams include Liverpool, Manchester City, Villareal, Real Madrid, Benfica, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich.
