Chelsea overturned their deficit from the first leg against Borussia Dortmund with a 2-0 victory on a special UEFA Champions League (UCL) night at Stamford Bridge, winning 2-1 on aggregate to secure their place in the quarter-final.
Dortmund’s fans made their presence known early on as yellow smoke billowed from the away section.
However, the visitors lost Julian Brandt just five minutes into proceedings having already experienced a 10-minute delay to kick-off.
Chelsea looked lively in the opening exchanges, although Kalidou Koulibaly and Kai Havertz both missed the target before Die Schwarzgelben’s influence on the pitch grew, with Marco Reus’ free-kick forcing a superb save from Kepa Arrizabalaga.
There was no drop in intensity but Havertz was left feeling hard-done-by either side of the half-hour mark.
The forward was denied by the post, then had his celebrations halted due to Raheem Sterling roaming offside in the build-up to the German smashing a beauty of a strike in off the underside of the crossbar.
Just as it seemed Chelsea’s frustrations in front of goal would continue into the break, Sterling recovered from a miskick to work space in the box and emphatically smash his strike past Alexander Meyer to level the tie with his first goal since New Year’s Day.
Having provided the ball for the opener, Ben Chilwell delivered a cross that was handled by Marius Wolf to win a penalty within five minutes of the restart.
Havertz hit the post with his initial penalty but was given another opportunity after a BVB encroachment, and coolly stuck his effort into the bottom corner.
With Die Schwarzgelben forced to step up their pursuit of an equaliser on the night, Jude Bellingham poked an effort wide and Wolf was denied by Kepa and Niklas Süle’s strike whistled past the post.
Despite Sterling being caught marginally offside again before selflessly teeing up Conor Gallagher, relentless BVB pressure and the game stretching past its alotted six minutes of added time, Chelsea held out to secure back-to-back wins for the first time since October, progressing to the quarter-final on what the Blues will hope can be a transformative night for them under Graham Potter.
Meanwhile, Dortmund failed to win for the first time in 2023 and were knocked out after their sixth consecutive loss in England.