Chelsea 0-2 Real Madrid (0-4 on aggregate) (Rodrygo 58′, 80′)
Chelsea’s faint hopes of a Champions League miracle were dashed with another 2-0 defeat to Real Madrid despite the first glimmers of hope of Frank Lampard’s second reign.
For every reason for optimism that something may yet be salvaged from this strange and chaotic season, it took one skip from Rodrygo past Trevoh Chalobah, a cross to Chelsea’s first-leg foe Vinicius Jr and one more touch back to Rodrygo to burst the bubble.
By the time Rodrygo had doubled the visitors’ lead, Chelsea were back to their old ways: Reece James beaten, Thiago Silva unable to challenge him and Mykhailo Mudryk sliding hopelessly around the box.
With one look at Lampard’s line-up, you could be forgiven for thinking he had misunderstood the assignment of a recovering a two-goal lead. Yet Chelsea showed for the first time in months what this expensively assembled and imbalanced squad might be capable of with a little more guidance.
A 3-5-2 set-up led by Kai Havertz and Conor Gallagher meant Raheem Sterling, Mudryk and Joao Felix started on the bench – but even when that ammunition was eventually thrown on for the last 20 minutes, the familiar issues of Chelsea failing to create enough touches in the box without a recognised striker returned.
That jeopardy had been building from the moment Rodrygo struck the post, the sense building that it would only be a matter of time until Real added to their aggregate tally no matter how much control they ceded.
Chelsea, on the other hand, repeated their mistakes of the Bernabeu a week ago, squandering their early momentum when N’Golo Kante scuffed his effort wide and Gallagher headed over.
Kante has done so much right since his recent return, probably the one player who has ostensibly benefited from Lampard’s arrival so far. Still, it was a glaring miss that risked defining the tie and one he emulated again in the second half, lashing another shot wide.
Where Chelsea continued to be haunted by the same problems in attack, there was, to begin with, something off about the European champions. Luka Modric played simple passes straight to Gallagher and Marc Cucurella in quick succession, before being easily dispossessed by Kante.
Karim Benzema’s opportunities were infrequent and with his best one, he could not even find the side netting. Eduardo Camavinga was forced out of position at left-back and James repeatedly had the chance to pressure Real, though he enjoyed little success with his final ball.
That Stamford Bridge could sense those weaknesses in Carlo Ancelotti’s side only made for greater disappointment with every missed chance. Cucurella was guilty of one of the worst, picking up James’ cross at the edge of the six-yard box and hit it straight at Thibaut Courtois, the former Chelsea ‘keeper berated at every turn by the home crowd.
Courtois responded to that treatment of his years of service here by kissing the Madrid badge on his shirt as the teams headed in for half time.
Todd Boehly will not be bursting into the dressing room to lambast this performance as “embarrassing” as he did after the weekend’s 2-1 defeat to Brighton – but he looked just as exasperated when Real’s goals came. In his £500m spending spree and with his third manager of the season, he has taken every leaf out of Roman Abramovich’s playbook and ended his first season in charge without a trophy and ostensibly nothing really to play for by mid-April.
Rightly or wrongly, for the green shoots that began to emerge in this quarter-final, Chelsea fans will credit Lampard, not Boehly.
There were at least signs of promise that were long forgotten by the end of the Graham Potter era. Enzo Fernandez, Kante and Mateo Kovacic are capable of dictating the pace, and James and Cucurella offered genuine width, rather than allowing themselves to be stretched out of position by Real’s wide forwards as they were in the first leg.
Admittedly, Vinicius was still carrying a knock from the weekend, which made for a far more comfortable evening on that flank. Chalobah did superbly to block the Brazilian when he did find himself through on goal.
Chelsea’s night might have been easier too had Eder Militao been sent off, already on a booking when he nicked the heels of Chalobah near Real’s box. An apoplectic Lampard was ignored as he mustered all the last energies of this season worth expending.
With Chelsea out of Europe, there is now not much to look forward to but for the first time, playing as if they had nothing to lose, with little to play for except pride seemed to have struck a chord.
The less generous interpretation is that Chelsea were at their best, or the best we have seen them in a long time, and it still wasn’t enough.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/BM1PiKy
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