Every Word Kai Havertz Said Ahead of Chelsea’s Champions League Clash vs LOSC Lille

Kai Havertz addressed the media ahead of Chelsea’s Champions League clash with LOSC Lille on Wednesday night.

The 22-year-old’s goal in the first leg at Stamford Bridge last month helped Chelsea to a two-goal aggregate lead heading into Wednesday’s last-16 second leg in northern France.

Chelsea will visit the Stade Pierre Mauroy for just the second time. They played there in October 2019 under Frank Lampard’s management, winning 2-1 thanks to goals from Tammy Abraham and Willian.

“We are all professional football players. Everyone knows it’s a strange situation for everyone in the Club right now. We are the players, we have to focus on playing football and on the matched. I think that’s the best we can do. All the other stuff, the Club has to sort out. It’s not about the players. I cannot speak about it much because we are very focused on the games. This is the most important for us in the moment..”

Now Chelsea are one step away from reaching the quarter-finals in the hope of retaining their European crown.

They have completed half of the job, now they just need to see the tie out to confirm their place in Friday’s draw.

Here’s what the Germany international had to say in full in his pre-match press conference:

On best form and position:

“It’s hard to say. I’m in a good run right now, I played some good matches in the past. I am happy about my performances in the last few matches. As a footballer you are always hungry and want more. I hope I can play with a lot more consistency. I hope I can keep going like this.”

On importance to focus on football:

“I think everyone knows it is not easy. You always try to focus on the games. Such a situation never happened at Chelsea before. It’s a little bit strange of course. As I said, we are professionals and sometimes situations like this can happen. It’s not easy for us, especially for the whole Club, the fans, for everyone. I think the best we can do in the moment is to play good football, to try to give the fans a smile in these kind of situations. Everything is tough for us in the moment but as we saw on the weekend, we can handle these situations and hopefully tomorrow as well.”

On whether players would pay for their own travel:

“I will pay, that’s no problem. I think that’s not a big deal for us. For us to come to the games is the most important thing. I think there are a lot of harder moments, harder things in the world right now than if we have to take a bus or plane to an away game. I will pay it, no problem.”

On whether it is in a footballers job to answer questions around issues away from football:

“Not really. For me, I think for the other players, for the manager, for everyone – it is hard to say for us. I think the manager said this as well. We are sitting here in Cobham, we play football, we can do what we love but there are a lot of bigger things happening right now than us playing football. You see these images, you think it is not possible things like this happen. Still we sit here, play in a full stadium and can enjoy some moments. For me, it is tough to speak about honestly because I really am not the political. I don’t know everything about it. I know it is the worst thing that can happen on the planet right now. I think we all stand for peace so it is tough for me to speak about it. We all know this. Obviously people ask us first because we are public people, they want to know what we think about it. To be honest it is hard to answer these questions because we don’t really get in touch with these situations and it’s tough to answer.”

On his potential & Thomas Tuchel influence:

“Obviously the arrival of Thomas Tuchel was good for us. We won some titles. Me personally, I think I grow as well as a player. Everyone knows you can not only have positive moments, there are some negative. I also had this in the last months, last two years as well. Personally, sometimes I grow from these situations when you don’t have a good moment, maybe sit on the bench. I am young, I can learn a lot and improve myself a lot. A career doesn’t always go up and up and up, you sometimes have to fall down a little bit and sit on the bench, learn from it. I think sometimes people don’t really see that it helps me and players, young players as well. I am very happy here and in the moment it is a good moment for me right now. I just hope I can continue like this, like the last games. I will do my best to do that.”