the times | Wednesday February 23 2022 2GM 71
Sport
Tuchel said Lukaku could
play in Sunday’s cup finalThomas Tuchel said he dropped
Romelu Lukaku as an attempt to
protect his record signing from
“another fire”, adding that the
striker could start Sunday’s
Carabao Cup final.
Lukaku, the £97.5 mil-
lion summer signing,
remained on the bench
for last night’s Champions
League round-of-16, first leg
win over Lille, with his replace-
ment Kai Havertz scoring the
first goal and Christian Pulisic
adding the second.
The Belgium striker had a
record-low seven touches in
Saturday’s victory away to
Crystal Palace and Tuchel said
he wanted to remove a “tired”
Lukaku from the spotlight.
“[It was] not the moment, after
the match where everybody
focused on the few touches he
had, to put him right away into
the next fire,” the Chelsea head
Havertz takes his chance
Brought in to replace Romelu Lukaku,
Kai Havertz responded with the first goal
and a fine all-round display, touching the
ball 46 times — 39 more than Lukaku v
Crystal Palace on SaturdayDirection
of playLondon can
step in as
final host,
says mayor
state-owned, is also a Champions
League sponsor. Four English clubs —
Chelsea, Liverpool and the two
Manchester sides — are in the round of
16 and it is expected that the Foreign
Office will change its advice on travel to
Russia after the invasion and the
subsequent response from the UK.
Johnson said yesterday in parliament
that Vladimir Putin’s invasion order
would lead to “a Russia that has pariah
status — [there is] no chance of holding
football tournaments in a Russia that
invades sovereign countries.”
Russia and Ukraine are involved in
World Cup play-off matches next
month: Ukraine are playing Scotland
away while Russia are at home to
Poland. The Polish FA has asked Fifa
for “urgent clarification” on the match
in Moscow “due to the tense political
situation in Ukraine and the Russian
Federation, as well as the possible
further escalation and the beginning of
an armed conflict”.
Nadine Dorries, the culture secre-
tary, said she would contact Uefa
regarding the final in St Petersburg.
“We won’t allow President Putin to
exploit events on the world stage to
legitimise his illegal invasion of
Ukraine,” she said.
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan,
suggested the city could step in as a
replacement venue although Wembley
is due to host the Sky Bet League Twoand Championship play-off finals on
May 28 and 29.
London has also already been chosen
by Uefa to host the “Finalissima” — the
first match in a new cup between the
European champions Italy and South
America’s champions Argentina on
June 1, and Uefa may feel it needs to
share out its big matches.
Labour MPs called for more Russian
oligarchs to be targeted beyond the
three announced by Johnson. Margaret
Hodge said the sanctions were “too
narrow in defining the individuals it
covers” and that of the 35 oligarchs on
a list drawn up by Russian opposition
leader Alexei Navalny, only 13 would be
covered — not including either Roman
Abramovich, the Chelsea owner, or
Alisher Usmanov, whose company
USM is Everton’s main backer.
Johnson said Abramovich was
already facing sanctions, but that was
contradicted in the Commons by the
Labour MP Chris Bryant who said it
was “untrue”. Government sources
confirmed that Abramovich is not on
any sanctions list and that the parlia-
mentary record would be amended.
A source close to Abramovich told
The Times that the Chelsea owner was
not involved in politics and had not
done anything that would make him
liable to sanctions.continued from back
6 Manchester United are sponsored by
Aeroflot, the airline that is majority
owned by the Russian Federation and
which often flies the squad to overseas
matches — though it did not do so for
the Champions League trip to Madrid
this week. The club said the sponsor-
ship was unaffected by the crisis as the
partnership is with the brand and not
the Russian government.inside today
Latest news and analysis
on the Ukraine crisis
News, pages 6-11CHLOE KNOTT/DANEHOUSE/GETTY IMAGESTuchel: I took struggling Lukaku out of the fire
coach said. “It was the moment to take
a step back.”
Havertz, 22, replaced Lukaku, 28, in
leading Chelsea’s attack against the
French champions and scored the
opening goal after eight minutes.
“Every game is different, the
focus today was on intensity, a
high-speed game and also hard
work on the ball and off the ball,
to have intense teamwork,”
Tuchel said. “Romelu strug-
gled in the last games to
deliver that. That’s what I
meant when I said ‘tired’.
Not only physically tired
but mentally tired.
“That’s the decision
today. For Sunday, we
have four days to
recover and he has
every chance to play.
“For Kai, I am very
pleased, he has been very
strong for weeks now. Hereally steps up and the effort is
immense, the work rate is immense, the
areas of the pitch he covered for us is
very, very good. He is never shy of
defending, he has a very aggressive
high line today with Hakim [Ziyech].”
With Sunday’s date with Liverpool at
Wembley Stadium looming, Tuchel’s
only negative news was seeing mid-
fielder Mateo Kovacic and Ziyech limp
off and down the Stamford Bridge tun-
nel. Kovacic had to use the support of a
handrail to climb the steps towards the
home dressing room.
Tuchel said he does not yet know the
extent of the injuries and, while he was
optimistic both could be involved in the
final, the German coach regretted not
acting sooner.
“I should have subbed Mateo Kovacic
at half-time,” he said. “I have not spoken
to the doctor about Hakim and hope it
is not serious.
“There are a lot of days to recover
until Sunday. We don’t like to have that
many injuries and more impact from
the bench on a tactical matter. I hope
they will be ready.”Tom Roddy