The Times - UK (2022-04-13)

the times | Wednesday April 13 2022 2GM 69

Sport

dogs. They bore no resemblance to a
side schooled into a 3-1 defeat only a
week previously, or one that would find
it even harder in Real’s intimidating
cauldron of noise. That Mount goal
heralded another 30 minutes when
Chelsea were dominant with posses-
sion and territory. Yet it wasn’t as if
Chelsea required that sole strike to
ignite their campaign. They looked
threatening long before Mount’s strike
spread danger, like a poison, through
the home side.
You might say, then, that Chelsea
came here and defied expectation. And
in a sense they did. Yet they also did
what Chelsea inevitably seem to do —
because they do not accept they are
beaten. Whatever you throw at them —
and never has anything like this been
chucked at one team these past few
weeks — they shake off the blows and
charge on.
Chelsea thrive on turmoil. Last night
in Madrid may have been unexpected,
but it was also an exhibition of the char-
acter you would expect Chelsea to
show.
Thus the line in AS, the Spanish
sports newspaper yesterday morning:
“You must play like in the first leg. The
danger is not over yet.”
No it isn’t. Even after half-time and

an opportunity to reset, Real did not

quell the danger. Chelsea picked up

where they left off. They were straight

back into attack mode. For a period,

somehow, they turned the 3-1 deficit in

this tie into a lead.

Thus unfolded one of the great

nights. One of the all-time great come-

backs. One of the great performances -

— and just the latest chapter in Chel-

sea’s incredible history of defiance.

Mount began the

fightback in the

15th minute,

bottom left,

before goals from

Rüdiger, middle,

and Werner, right,

put Chelsea in the

driving seat.

Benzema, though,

would have the

final say — as he

did against PSG —

after Rodrygo

had pulled Real

level in the tie

Semi-final fixtures

Wednesday, April 27

Man City/Atletico Madrid

v

Real Madrid

Benfica/Liverpool

v

Villarreal

Wednesday, May 4

Villarreal

v

Liverpool/Benfica

Real Madrid

v

Atletico Madrid/Man Cityy

M

A

to halt comeback for the ages

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER BRADLEY ORMESHER

Tuchel hits

out at referee

for ‘laughing

with Carlo’

Tom Roddy

Thomas Tuchel questioned the behav-

iour of the referee, Szymon Marciniak,

after Chelsea’s Champions League exit

to Real Madrid.

The Chelsea head coach described

his pride after his team took a 3-0 lead

at the Bernabeu having lost last week’s

first leg 3-1, only to be eliminated as

Karim Benzema struck the winner after

Rodrygo sent the game to extra-time.

But Tuchel questioned Marciniak’s

decision not to view Marcos Alonso’s

disallowed goal — ruled out by VAR —

on the monitor himself and said he was

upset with the Polish referee’s

behaviour at full-time with the Real

manager, Carlo Ancelotti.

“I was disappointed that the referee

had a good time with Carlo,” Tuchel

said. “When I wanted to go and say

thank you, he was smiling and laughing

with the opponent’s coach. I think this

is the very wrong time to do this after

the final whistle, 126 minutes of a team

giving their heart. When you go and see

a referee smiling and laughing with the

other coach, it’s bad timing.”

Tuchel expressed his frustration with

the fourth official, Srdjan Jovanovic, for

adding only three minutes at the end of

the match and believes decisions went

against his side in both legs.

“Not only today [did decisions not go

Chelsea’s way],” he said. “When you

play against Real Madrid, maybe you

don’t expect everyone has the courage.

I felt the little decisions in the first leg

and today as well.

“I didn’t see the [Alonso] goal but I am

super disappointed he didn’t come out

and check it on it’s own. You should stay

the boss and not give the decisions to

someone in a chair [VAR] and who is

isolated.”

Tuchel’s team were heading into the

semi-finals after Timo Werner put

Chelsea 3-0 up after Mason Mount and

Antonio Rudiger put the holders ahead.

But while Tuchel expressed pride in his

team’s performance he also said they

would have to remove the errors that

led to Madrid’s goals.

“We are very disappointed and proud

at the same time,” Tuchel said. “Fantas-

tic match, we scored four, had big chan-

ces to score even more. But we were un-

lucky. Beaten by pure individual quality

and conversion of our two mistakes.

“They were the most crucial mo-

ments in games versus Real Madrid.

[We] deserved to go through after this

match but it was not meant to be. [We]

need luck in games like this.

“We have to reduce amount of mis-

takes and couldn’t reduce them to the

absolute limit. Only very few teams

score from the mistakes we made. We

deserved to go through. No regrets.

These are the kind of defeats that can

take pride in and accept as a sportsman.

“We did it to full limit today and

credit goes to the players. We were very

disciplined on ball and very active off it,

showed lot of courage and then the

quality. Right way to do it. It’s what we

did at Southampton and today. Very

happy this is way to go forward.

“If we have this effort we are a special

team. If not we can lose versus any

team. Demands are high.”

Havertz despairs

after blowing

a late chance

Yet maybe the greatest achievement

of Chelsea was not whether they were

able to pull off the miracle and retrieve

a tie that Tuchel had already declared

dead. It was that they were even up for

the contest, that they managed to re-

main so alive for the past six weeks

when it looked as though events might

finish them off altogether.

When Russia invaded Ukraine and

suddenly Chelsea were being pulled

apart by global politics, who didn’t won-

der if there was a historical collapse

about to be played out before us by

the football team Roman Abram-

ovich was forced to relin-

quish. Which players

would leave? Who would

bail? And what would that

conversation then do for

the dressing room? What

did they actually feel about

the club they have been rep-

resenting and its owner?

This was all, obviously, ,an

extraordinary crisis. It

might have tugged away at

the foundations and

brought collapse.

Chelsea, however, do not collapse.

They might lose 4-1 at home to Brent-

ford, but they’ll straighten out and beat

Southampton 6-0 away a week later.

They might have had their assets fro-

zen, lost their owner and wondered

who was next going to pay them and

when, but actually they barely skipped

a beat. When They didn’t go on a losing

run, they kept results solid; they did

Chelsea-type stuff, they held out for

penalties in the Carabao Cup final

against Liverpool, dug in and

worked out a laborious 1-0 against

Newcastle United. And so it went.

This is Chelsea history in

the 21st century: a history of

turmoil, a long sequence of

boom-and-bust coaches,

building and rebuilding,

birth and rebirth. Through-

out all the uncertainty, a

strong core has remained.

Somehow, the culture and

personalities in the dressing

room have continued to make

Chelsea stronger in adversi-

ty. Yet was there ever a

Chelsea group drawn

tighter than this one

that laid waste to the

odds in the Berna-

béu last night?

a historical collapse

ed out before us by

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