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Football London
Football London
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Danyal Khan

The Lille player Man United fans will be hoping can impress in Champions League tie vs Chelsea

Manchester United and Lille fans will hope that versatile forward Angel Gomes can perform well on Tuesday night in the French champions' first leg of their Round of 16 tie against Chelsea.

The current Ligue 1 mid-table side come into this clash as massive underdogs, with all the pressure on Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea to move a step closer to retaining their European crown.

Despite the French side's dramatic fall from grace since the start of the 2021/22 campaign, Tuchel alongside Edouard Mendy was under no illusion of the challenge Jocelyn Gourvennec's side pose to the west Londoners.

"Yes, they do struggle. There are reasons why they do. They had a fantastic coach and fantastic players. They were very, very competitive when I was in Paris," Tuchel revealed in his pre-match press conference on Monday.

"You could feel that it was a strong group, a strong squad, and a very emotional club. It was difficult to play at their stadium. The quality of the bond between the players and the coach was exceptional. You could feel that they have a chance to fight constantly for a place in the Champions League.

"Last season they became champions which is huge in France. From there, they lost players and the coach so there's a huge change.

"If the change is so big then there's a possibility that it takes some time to settle in. They lost another key player in Ikone in winter from their attacking formation. But still, we all know how physical French football is, the offensive players are physical and fast.

"They are very brave in one-on-one challenges. They are always a threat on counter-attacks and disciplined against the ball. They have the chance to play this game as underdogs and have the mentality with nothing to lose and they will take it from there."

Amid all the dangerous players that Chelsea's opponents on Tuesday night have in their armoury with Renato Sanchez, Hatem Ben Arfa, Jonathan David and Burak Yilmaz coming to the immediate attention, one player who may have gone under the radar is someone well known to one of the Blues' Premier League rivals.

Gomes, 21, joined the Manchester United youth set up back in 2016 and made only 10 appearances for the club up before leaving on a free transfer to join Lille back in August 2020, subsequently being loaned out to Portuguese side Boavista.

"With Angel, he's a top kid we've had at the club for so many years, we've offered him a deal and hopefully he'll take that and if not I wish him all the best", then-manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said before the 21-year-old decided to depart Manchester United.

The Blues were linked to making a surprise swoop for the free agent before he decided to move abroad - a decision from Marina Granovskaia and co that split opinion at the time.

The versatile forward fared well in Portugal where he attained 12 goal contributions across the 2020/21 campaign before he moved back to Gourvennec's side to play alongside Canadian star David.

It's still early days for Gomes in France, who is yet to score in the 15 Ligue 1 appearances he has made so far in 2021/22 for a stuttering Lille outfit.

He has attained two goal contributions in the group stage phase of this season's Champions League, meaning that the Blues need to be alert of the danger the ex-United academy star could pose in the first leg on Tuesday night.

Regardless of his struggles this season, there would have been a reason why Chelsea once wanted Gomes and those said reasons could become ever more potent if the ex-United man plays well under the lights of Stamford Bridge in this first leg.

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