It was a Champions League mission that was supposed to be impossible for Chelsea. And yet it was one that they thought they had pulled off. They had refused to wallow when, two goals to the good thanks to Mason Mount and Antonio Rüdiger, they were cruelly denied by a VAR overrule after Marcos Alonso thought that he had made it 3-0 in the 62nd minute.
Instead, Timo Werner did make it 3-0. For so many reasons, it had to be the cult hero forward and, if the traveling fans struggled to make sense of it all – utterly lost in the moment – they were not the only ones.
To put the size of the challenge that Chelsea had faced into some sort of perspective, only one club had ever overturned a two-goal deficit from a home first-leg in the Champions League knock-out rounds. That was Manchester United in 2019 against a Paris Saint-Germain team managed by, you guessed it, Thomas Tuchel.
The problem was that Real Madrid were not finished. They never are. If they have 13 European Cups, they seem to have almost as many lives in the competition every season. They dug out the equalizer when Luka Modric unfurled a sumptuous outside-of-the-boot pass for the substitute, Rodrygo, to volley home although, even then, Chelsea might have pinched it after the 90 minutes were up. Twice, the substitute, Christian Pulisic, blazed high when well placed.
Real would fashion what proved to be decisive blow in the early running of extra time. When Vinícius Júnior stood up a cross from the left, Karim Benzema – Real’s hat-trick hero of the first-leg – melted away from Rüdiger and the Chelsea defender could only turn in horror, slipping as he tumbled over, powerless to prevent what was coming, Benzema buried the header.
Chelsea refused to go quietly, just as they had refused to bow at any point. The drama was remorseless until the end, Kai Havertz heading wide when gloriously placed and the substitute, Jorginho, dragging a shot past the post when he had to score. The full-time whistle triggered an outpouring of emotion. Real were jubilant, reprieved; Chelsea devastated. Their defense of the competition is over.
Chelsea had been to Madrid last season and drawn, en route to their aggregate victory in the semi-final, but they had not been here. Never before had they played at the Bernabéu in European competition. The game last season was staged at Real’s training complex in front of no fans while this venue underwent renovations.
Now it was packed and the home hordes simply expected their club to advance through the 37th European Cup quarter-final of their history. “Don’t play with the king” read the slogan on the giant tifo unfurled before kick-off. The image showed a king flicking out cards with the number 13 above a Champions League trophy. Don’t play with him, OK?
Tuchel shuffled his pack, dramatically. Chelsea’s first-leg performance had been defined by a lack of intensity and he badly wanted to see that return. It was why he started with Werner amid other willing runners. But it was the 4-3-1-2 shape that represented the eye-catcher; Ruben Loftus-Cheek on the right of midfield, Mount behind split strikers.
Chelsea enjoyed a good spell of possession, Loftus-Cheek worked the ball forward and Werner made a flick, which he did not seem to know too much about, and there suddenly was Mount bursting into a wide open seam. He took on the chance first time – he had to – and the technique was true, which it usually is. The ball fizzed past Thibaut Courtois.
Tuchel did not want to die wondering. It was wonderfully swashbuckling stuff because Real could see the spaces in behind the Chelsea defence. Vinícius Junior eyed them covetously. He was frequently one-on-one with Reece James and there was a moment early on when he tricked past him to buy a free-kick and a yellow card for his marker from him. Benzema lifted a shot over the crossbar.
Tuchel’s reasoning was plain. No risk, no reward. In possession, Loftus-Cheek pushed high up the right while Alonso did likewise from left-back. James slid across from right-back to make a defensive three. Mount drifted all over. He seemed to be everywhere. It was flexible, cohesive.
Before the breakthrough goal, Kai Havertz had seen a shot blocked after Chelsea pinched the ball high up while Rüdiger looked over from the subsequent corner. For Real, Benzema had an effort from a distance that deflected high on 24 minutes but there was not much else from them before the interval.
Chelsea’s system hinged on the tactical awareness of James, not to mention his power in the duels, and they continued to push in the second half. Real did not know whether to stick or twist.
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Havertz got into dangerous areas and, after Real only half-cleared a corner, the irrepressible James flashed a low shot just wide. Did it really flick off Modric? Real argued not. But from Mount’s corner, Rüdiger brushed aside Modric and planted a header past Courtois.
Finally, Real stirred. Benzema was thwarted by a saving James tackle, Édouard Mendy pushed away a Toni Kroos free-kick and Federico Valverde blasted just over. And yet it was Chelsea who thought they had found the next goal.
N’Golo Kanté led the break after Mount and Havertz had robbed Ferland Mendy and, when Alonso got a second bite off Dani Carvajal, he lashed into the far corner with his right foot. And yet the second bite was revealed by VAR to have been aided by his hand from him, even if it looked inadvertent. It was brutally cruel.
www.theguardian.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism