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Chelsea drew with Juventus 2-2 to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a 3-2 aggregate victory on Tuesday.

Juventus, trailing 1-0 after the first leg, took a 19th-minute lead through Vincenzo Iaquinta. Michael Essien, making his first start for Chelsea in six months, responded with a game-tying goal in first-half injury time.

Alessandro Del Piero gave the home side some hope when his 73rd-minute penalty made it 2-1. But Juventus, which needed to score again to counter the away goals rule, played the last 20 minutes with 10 men after Giorgio Chiellini received his second yellow card of the night.

Didier Drogba put the outcome beyond doubt though with seven minutes remaining, sliding to deflect in a low cross from Juliano Belletti.

"(Drogba's form) is very important. He is showing his commitment and he is always busy," Chelsea coach Guus Hiddink said. "He doesn't give a central defender an easy night and tonight he scored as well. For his goal he got ahead of his marker and that is a sign that he is sharp."

Coach Claudio Ranieri said Juventus' failure to score in the first leg was costly.

"I think we lost the game when we didn't score at Stamford Bridge," he said. "It is important in this competition to score an away goal. They are a great team with great players. Last year they reached the final and they have had a lot of investment."

Juventus lined up with three attackers in Iaquinta, Del Piero and David Trezeguet and began in determined fashion, using its fullbacks Cristian Molinaro and Zdenek Grygera to launch attacks from wide out.

However, it was from a move through the midfield that Juventus opened the scoring. Tiago played a pass into Trezeguet, who flicked the ball through the Chelsea defence for Iaquinta to run onto and fire past Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech.

Minutes later, Del Piero forced Cech into pushing the ball away for a corner following a powerful shot from the edge of the area.

Cech appeared hesitant and on a number of occasions his indecision almost put Juventus into scoring positions and required central defenders John Terry and Alex to clear the danger.

Juventus' midfield of Tiago, Claudio Marchisio and Hasan Salihamidzic, who went on for the injured Pavel Nedved after 13 minutes, was outplaying and outmuscling Chelsea's midfield of Essien, Michael Ballack, John Obi Mikel and Frank Lampard.

Chelsea improved as the half went on and a minute before halftime Drogba thought he had drawn Chelsea level. He clipped a free kick over the wall, which Juventus goalie Gianluigi Buffon stopped at the base of the post, though the Ivory Coast striker protested that he had scored.

Hiddink's side did equalize seconds later though. A shot by Lampard was deflected and looped over Buffon. The keeper recovered enough to push the ball onto the bar, but Essien was first to the rebound and tapped into the open goal.

"Essien is fit, although not game fit for 90 minutes at this high-paced, top level," Hiddink said. "We chose to start him, because if we had to bring him on it would have been a negative situation and we wanted to be proactive. The goal was an added extra."

Ranieri said he felt Essien's goal was a big turning point.

"I certainly regret that a goal was scored just before halftime," he said. "The team went into the second half wanting to do the impossible. Scoring a goal wasn't easy but we did so and we kept on fighting. That is why I'd say we lost the tie at Stamford Bridge, when we didn't score there."

On the hour Juventus sent in Sebastien Giovinco for Iaquinta and the young attacker immediately brought a new lease of life with his runs at the heart of the Chelsea defence.

Giovinco was involved with a move that resulted in Cech tipping a Trezeguet header over the bar, but the Italian side's efforts suffered a setback when central defender Chiellini was sent off after receiving his second yellow card for a foul on Drogba.

Juventus still managed to retake the lead in the 73rd minute. Giovinco was fouled and from the resulting free kick by Del Piero, Cech dived low to stop Trezeguet's header.

However, Spanish referee Alberto Mallenco Undiano ruled Belletti used his hands to deflect the ball and awarded a penalty. Despite the lengthy protests of the Chelsea players, Del Piero held his nerve and beat Cech from the spot.

Juventus then piled on the pressure, but Chelsea hit on the break to equalize. Ballack slipped the ball into the path of Belletti and Drogba slid in at the near post to hook the ball past Buffon.

"In the second half we controlled the game a little bit more," Hiddink said. "We didn't play the stupid long ball all the time. Ashley Cole on the left was important and we started playing with passes bit more."