Chelsea finished the job against Atletico Madrid with a 2-0 second leg win at Stamford Bridge, having won the first ‘away’ leg 1-0 a few weeks ago, rounding out a 3-0 aggregate triumph.
The early stages of the second leg were tense, until Ziyech finished off a sweeping move in the 34th minute with Timo Werner’s left flank cutback finding the Moroccan to fire home.
“He played today because he did it with Ajax and he came to a semi-final,” Tuchel said about Ziyech who’s made only 25 appearances in all competitions this season.
“He has good experience in the Round of 16, he knows how it feels to arrive in the knockout round and go through to the last eight.
“The second reason he played is because he deserved it and the third is we missed Mason Mount and we wanted to replace his work-rare and intensity with Hakim because we knew we faced a midfield of three with a lot of quality.
“Maybe he suffers a bit to adapt to our style because he loves to play creative and he needs to adapt to the structure but he gives a very reliable work-rate for the team.”
Stefan Savic was sent off for Atletico in the 81st minute before substitute Emerson scored with his first touch in stoppage-time to seal the win.
Chelsea’s progression to the quarter-finals marks the furthest they’ve gone in the Champions League in seven years.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, Bayern Munich comfortably knocked out Lazio with a 2-1 win on the night completing a 6-2 aggregate triumph.