Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea were defeated 3-1 by Spanish giants Real Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final clash on Wednesday night.
MATCH PROCEEDINGS
The home side got the game underway on a strong note going forward as N’Golo Kante teed up Kai Havertz for a real chance through on goal only for the latter to fire his effort over the bar.
Real then hit the top of the crossbar through Vinicius Jr in an effort that could have got the Spaniards their breakthrough which was to arrive just minutes later.
Karim Benzema was set up with a peach of delivery into the box from Vinicius and the former made no mistake in his dispatching his header past Mendy to make it 1-0 for Carlo Ancelotti’s men.
Benzema, however, showed no signs of slowing down as the Frenchman doubled his tally for the night only three minutes after his opener with another bullet header.
Chelsea pulled one back before the half time break with the in-form Kai Havertz thumping a header with Real shot-stopper Courtois unable to keep the strike out.
Tuchel’s half time words could bring about the desired change with Edouard Mendy’s lapse in judgement seeing him make a wayward pass which was intercepted by the dangerman Benzema who soon had the ball in the back of the net to complete his hat-trick.
Romelu Lukaku came off the bench as Chelsea rang in changes to get back in the game with the Belgian striker coming close to making it 3-2 only for his header to go wide of the post with Real getting past the finish line to claim a crucial win.
