Chelsea went into their Champions League round of 16 tie against Borussia Dortmund this evening desperate for a result.
Manager Graham Potter was in the hot seat after failing to galvanise his expensive squad into a unit.
The Blues have been poor this season and lost the first leg in Germany after Karim Adeyemi scored a superb solo goal.
Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur defeated them before they gained some respite with a win over Leeds United last weekend.
BVB were on a ten-game winning run and had the upper hand coming to Stamford Bridge. Edin Terzic’s men were confident, and rightly so.
Chelsea started the game aggressively with Kai Havertz slipping Raheem Sterling in, but the Englishman dithered and BVB’s defenders recovered.
Dortmund goalkeeper Alexander Meyer had to stop Joao Felix 1v1, cutting his options before making the save.
After a frantic ten minutes, Dortmund began to settle. Captain Marco Reus struck a brilliant free-kick that Kepa Arrizabalaga sprawled to save.
In-form Dortmund attacking midfielder Julian Brandt had to go off early after suffering what looked like a hamstring injury. Giovanni Reyna replaced him.
Chelsea went close again, with Havertz hitting the post with a shot. He looked bright, hoping to break his seven-game goalless run.
Minutes later, the German international had the ball in the net, but Sterling was marginally offside in the build-up to the goal.
Chelsea came back, and Kalidou Koulibaly should have put the ball in the net, but he inadvertently set up Felix, who forced the save from Meyer.
The next time Chelsea came forward, they scored. Chilwell crossed for Sterling, and although he miscued his first shot, the ball ricocheted sweetly for him to thump his shot home.
Stamford Bridge went wild, but Dortmund soon reminded everyone of the danger they possessed immediately after going down.
They sliced through Chelsea’s defence before Chilwell recovered crucially to stop Raphael Guerreiro from scoring. They went into the break level on aggregate.
Chelsea pressed aggressively again following the restart, and a Chilwell cross struck Marius Wolf’s hand. After the referee watched the situation on the VAR screen, he gave the penalty.
Potter gave Havertz penalty duties recently following the departure of Jorginho to Arsenal, and he stepped up and missed the kick, hitting the post.
Fortunately, he got a second bite at the cherry as players encroached the box. Havertz dispatched it to give the Blues the lead on aggregate.
Jude Bellingham missed a sitter minutes later, steering a simple chance wide from only a few yards out.
Wolf then forced a save from Arrizabalaga as Dortmund pushed for their equaliser. Niklas Sule warned Chelsea again with a shot from a distance that veered wide.
Chelsea had the ball in the back of the net again after 75 minutes when Mateo Kovacic slipped Sterling through on goal, and he squared for substitute Conor Gallagher to score. However, Sterling was offside.
The latter stages of the game were marred by fouls and time-wasting, but Chelsea held on to book their place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
