Joe Cole has been full of praise for Chelsea’s performance in the Champions League against Lille – and for one player in particular.
The Blues recorded their first win in the competition this season as goals from Tammy Abraham and Willian helped Frank Lampard’s men to a 2-1 victory in France, ahead of a double header with Group H leaders Ajax.
But while Abraham and Willian got the goals, former Chelsea midfielder Cole singled out the impact of one player from the bench.
“To go away in Europe is so hard. They probably don’t even realise how good a result that is tonight, going away to a place like Lille, 54,000. They just stopped the crowd early on, the system worked very well,” he said.
“Lille looked like they didn’t have anything and then Callum (Hudson-Odoi) came on and made the difference.
“You have got to give credit to Willian and some of the senior players tonight as well. We can’t keep banging on about the youngsters, they turned up tonight and it was a great performance away in Europe.”
Meanwhile, Cole has described Chelsea defender Fikayo Tomori as “like a young Rio Ferdinand” after his performance against Lille.
The Chelsea defender impressed once again for the Blues against the French side, with the 21-year-old’s performance described as outstanding by Frank Lampard.
And Cole, who was a pundit on BT Sport for their coverage of the game, was in agreement over the defender’s display.
“He was different class tonight,” said Cole.
“He’s been Chelsea’s best performer for the last two or three games. Like a young Rio Ferdinand there, I’ve had that arm across me many times.
“The big thing, last year under Sarri it was very static. There was one way of playing and that was the way. Frank was very worried, not worried, he was cautious that he wanted his team to be flexible and he’s used two systems in the game tonight and come out on top tactically on both fronts.”
