For a little more than ten minutes, Chelsea seemed in trouble at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy. Burak Yilmaz had converted from the penalty spot and Lille's supporters were raucous.
It was a test of the Blues' nerve. Another tricky situation for Thomas Tuchel and his players to overcome. Fortunately, they did so and in a rather impressive fashion. Moments before half-time, Jorginho poked a delightful pass through the Lille defence for Christian Pulisic. The American, from an acute angle, did the rest.
That restored Chelsea's two-goal advantage on aggregate but Lille threatened still. It wasn't until the second period and Cesar Azpilicueta's kneed-finish from a Mason Mount cross that the Blues booked their place in the Champions League quarter-finals.
READ MORE: Every word Thomas Tuchel said on Champions League, Abramovich, Azpilicueta, Middlesbrough and more
"We are all competitors and I experienced, once I was part of the [Chelsea] family, a very competitive spirit and a very competitive club," Tuchel said. "I think Chelsea are so clear as a club about what they demand of every employee and every player: play your role, play to the limit, and take responsibility.
"This is what Chelsea is about. It sharpens your mentality and brings out the best of you. It's normal to do it on a daily basis and because this mentality is installed over years and years – decades – it plays a big part as to why we can stay focused and produce results as we do at the moment when things are uncertain and unstable around us.
"It's already there and we live it on a daily basis. We try to encourage and support the players in the best way possible. Still, I am very proud that they can do it like this."
For the second campaign in succession, Chelsea have secured their place in the last eight. Their potential opponents are Manchester City, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Benfica and Villarreal. Does Tuchel have a preferred opponent, a club he would enjoy facing in the quarter-finals? The German insisted that wasn't the case.
"I want us to be the team nobody wants to play. This is the role we see ourselves in this round of eight," he said with a smile. "We fight for the top four places in the toughest league maybe in the world right now [the Premier League] and we fight in the last eight again [in the Champions League].
"So this brings out the best in us and we want to be the team nobody wants to play against. So let's see what happens."
Azpiliceuta's second-half goal guaranteed Chelsea's place in the quarter-finals and also guaranteed the Blues an £8.9million windfall in prize money from UEFA. And that isn't impacted by the licence the club are working under after the UK government sanctioned Roman Abramovich as part of its response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
However, and unfortunately for Chelsea given their current situation, the club will not receive that immediately and will have to wait until after the Champions League is concluded for prize money to be paid out by UEFA.
