The first leg quarter-final tie between Chelsea and Madrid went down at the Bridge with both sides looking to gain the impetus going into the second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu next Tuesday.
Both teams came out to play under the floodlights on a rainy Wednesday night at the Bridge with Madrid harboring thoughts of revenge on Chelsea who ousted the Spanish giants in the repeat of this same fixture but in the Semi-final stage of last season’s Champions league.
Chelsea came into the game on the back of a heavy thrashing by Brentford just at the weekend while Madrid headed down to London after a brilliant win over Celta Vigo in the LaLiga.
Chelsea started the game like a team with much to prove playing on the front foot for the first 10 minutes before Real Madrid took control to some extent with Casemiro and Kroos in particular finding the passes to break through Chelsea’s press.
On the 21st minute mark, Madrid found space through Chelsea’s midfield before Benzema played a quick one-two with Vinicius Jnr leading to the French striker playing a through ball down the left attacking channel to free up Vinicius who repaid the favor with a brilliant cross for the in form striker to head home and give Madrid the lead.
The second goal of the match didn’t take long as Madrid once again played their way through Chelsea’s disjointed press as Valverde and Carvajal showed brightly on the right hand side with nice interchange of passes before Modric played a one time cross find Benzema who again showed a proper number 9s movement to free himself from the attention of Thiago Silva before guiding the ball around the clutches of Mendy to stun Chelsea and Thomas Tuchel.
Chelsea did respond to going two goals behind and Kai Harvertz continued his red hot form replicating Benzema’s brilliant movement around the box before powering home Jorginho’s cross and giving the fans some hope heading into the second half.
Every tactical change and hope that was generated from the half were all dashed one minute into the second after a poor pass from Mendy saw Rudiger lose out on a 30-70 challenge to Benzema with the striker wining the ball before slotting it home with Mendy far from his goal and Chelsea seemingly far from a semi-final berth in this season’s Champions league.
Here are 5 lessons learned as Chelsea gets a reality check at the Bridge;
Kante struggles
The name Kante isn’t often mentioned in the same sentence as struggle(s) but that was the case at the Bridge on Wednesday night.
Kante and Jorginho found it difficult to cope with Madrid’s midfield three and the space afforded Modric and Casemiro most especially caused damage with Madrid playing through Chelsea’s press with little or no problem at all.
This season, Kante has struggled with injuries and those injuries have hampered his season with top-level performances coming seldom from the Frenchman.
Shaky Mendy – Back to back games
Since his return from leading Senegal to the World Cup, Edou Mendy has struggled with his concentration and composure.
Against Brentford over the weekend, Mendy got away with a poor pass out from the ball which found Ivan Toney in the first half with the game still goalless.
Mendy suffered another cold feet at the Bridge against Madrid, this time playing a short pass under no pressure to Rudiger who in turn couldn’t clear the ball before Benzema pounced to score his hattrick and put Madrid firmly in control of the tie heading into the second leg next wee Tuesday.
Tuchel’s tactical mistake
Very rarely does one get to see a mistake of a tactical master planner like Thomas Tuchel but one was evident here as Madrid came visiting.
Tuchel’s decision to revert to a back three after Brentford’s loss was understandable but the mistake was evident as the player to come in Christensen got battered time and time again by Vinicius Jnr who took high positions down the right channel of Chelsea’s defence and the Dane couldn’t get in the way of the Brazilian Vini jnr.
Tuchel did admit his mistake after the match and changing to a back four did nullify the threat of Vini Jnr with Reece James fully quenching every trick brought forward by the tricky Brazilian.
TT is also human after all.
Kai’s brilliance
One of the very few positives to take from the game against Real Madrid has to be the performance of Kai Harvertz.
Excluding Kai’s superb movement that led to his headed goal in the 40th minute of the first half, his overall movement and positional sense was a joy to behold.
The silky German as he’s fondly called found spaces in half positions in a rather tight midfield and his ability to pick passes and strength to hold off players came in handy as Harvertz got involved in everything good going forward for Chelsea.
Kai Havertz’s stamina and constant pressing would have been much appreciated by Thomas Tuchel and if there’s to be any chance of a turn around in the second leg, then the silky German has much to say about that.
Lukaku fails to make an impact… AGAIN!
With your team going down 1-3 at home in the quarter-final of the UEFA champions league, the option to bring on an £100 million striker is one every coach would take and TT did likewise.
With the game seemingly perfect for the introduction of an out-and-out number 9, TT brought on Lukaku on the 64th minute to come help savage something and anything from the game but the striker sometimes looked too heavy and too late to react.
The movement of Kai as a leading striker was missing as from Lukaku’s game and his physicality was countered with Casemiro going into the center of the back two to create a third center back and allow Chelsea the ball but not in their area.
Big Rom has got to come out big!
Player ratings:
Mendy 4/10, James 6/10, Christensen 3/10, Silva 5/10, Rudiger 5/10, Azpilicueta 6/10, Jorginho 6/10 Kante 5/10, Mount 6/10, Pulisic 4/10, Kai 8/10
Subs: Kovaciç 6/10, RLC 6/10, Lukaku 4/10, Ziyech 5/10
Man of the Match: Kai Havertz 👑
