Havertz harnesses creative potential and unlocks Chelsea attack | Barney Roney


The £220m of attacking talent at Stamford Bridge has been a rare puzzle, but Thomas Tuchel’s job is to make it work – now he has the missing piece

With 33 minutes gone at Stamford Bridge something startling happened. There are moments in the life of a successful team that come to be seen as transformative. It might be pushing it to see outright ignition, a lightning bolt, the man of many parts creaking up from his trolley, neck bolts whirring, in a breakaway goal from an attacking trio with a combined record of five goals in their past 66 Chelsea games before this second leg.

But then, it really was a brilliant goal. And something did seem to stir here, enough to drive Chelsea on to an increasingly fluent 2-0 defeat of Atlético Madrid and a place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

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