Chelsea press conference LIVE: Thomas Tuchel on Lille, Champions League, Lukaku, Mount and more

Chelsea return to Champions League action as they welcome Lille to Stamford Bridge for their Round of 16 first leg tomorrow evening

Good afternoon and welcome to live coverage of Thomas Tuchel and Edouard Mendy’s pre-match press conferences ahead of Chelsea’s Champions League Round of 16 first leg against Lille.

It’s a little more than two months since the Blues booked their places in the knockout stage and the reigning European champions are favourites to overcome the French side and reach the last eight.

Lille have endured a difficult campaign thus far and sit eleventh in the Ligue 1 table. There is no chance of Les Dogues retaining the title they beat PSG to last term so their focus can be fully the Champions League ahead of their visit to Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea warmed up for tomorrow evening’s clash with a 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace on Saturday. It was a win that created more debate around Romelu Lukaku, however, with the Belgian an isolated figure – he touched the ball just seven times across the 90 minutes.

Tuchel will faces questions about whether Lukaku will start against Lille and will also deliver the latest team news. There is hope Reece James and Mason Mount will be back in training this week but tomorrow’s game is likely to come too early.

Chelsea’s head coach will be followed by Mendy, who will be speaking to the media for the first time since winning the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal and the World Club Cup with the Blues.