Real Madrid travelled to London this evening to take on Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final second leg, but were thoroughly outclassed by Thomas Tuchel’s team. Los Blancos lost 2-0 on the night and 4-1 on aggregate, so Zinedine Zidane‘s men will miss out on the chance to face Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in the final in Istanbul.
Chelsea took the lead in the 28th minute. Ngolo Kante did excellently carrying the ball deep from midfield, before Timo Werner popped up to score after good work from compatriot Kai Havertz. Edouard Mendy was on fire in the first half, saving spectacularly from Karim Benzema, while at the other end former Chelsea man Thibaut Courtois made a key save around the hour mark to stop Havertz from doubling Chelsea’s lead.
He couldn’t stop what happened in the 85th minute, however, when Madrid finally gave way under relentless Chelsea pressure. Mason Mount was the man to deliver the killer second goal, finishing neatly after a cross-goal ball from the Christian Pulisic. Given it meant Madrid needed two goals to get back on level terms, it was a big goal, and served as the final nail in the coffin for a visiting team that looked dead on their feet.
“We can say they’ve deserved the victory,” Zidane said after the game in comments carried by Marca. “We’ve tried but in the end they deserved to win and pass [to the final]. We played a semi-final and the players were prepared, if they played they were prepared.
“We can be proud of our players, we’ve tried and we’ve come this far, one step away from the final. Chelsea have played a great match and they deserved to pass. We have to congratulate them. Right now we’re not happy, but when you lose a semi-final you can’t be happy, that’s normal. It’s a hard moment but tomorrow we’ll train again.”
