Fresh from a 4-1 clobbering at home in the hands of Premier League new boys Brentford FC, Chelsea, the European champions were yet again on the receiving end following a 3-1 battering by 13-time champions Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League quarter finals at Stamford Bridge.
An inevitable Karim Benzema who recently bagged a hat-trick that sank French champions Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16 grabbed yet another treble at the expense of Chelsea with two immaculate headers in the space of three minutes in the first half before Kai havertz pulled one back for Chelsea just before the break. However, Chelsea shot-stopper Edouard Mendy made a costly mistake just 40 seconds into the second half to hand the French striker a second hat-trick in back-to-back Champions League games. Benzema, 34, now joins elite company becoming only the fourth player to do so after Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luiz Adriano.
Thomas tuchel was sceptical about his team’s performance terming it far from their standards since the international break claiming that their Champions League defence had come to an end, ruling out a remontada at the Bernabeu next week. The German clearly stating after his sides shambolic display his focus was on the Premier League game against Southampton over the weekend. “If we keep on playing like this will lose in Southampton and then we don’t want to think about the Bernabeu, will get hammered in Bernabeu, ” he said.
On the flip side Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti was full of Praise for his striker Karim Benzema who scored yet another hat-trick. ” Benzema is a complete player not just striker, he scores a lot of goals and also helps the team in possession and holding the ball in the right positions, ” he said
Chelsea who have shown the ability to overcome adversity in the recent past will have an enormous task to pull what will be one of their finest achievements yet to knock Real Madrid out of the Champions League and reach the last four.
Elsewhere, an early Arnaut Danjuma close range strike gave Spanish side Villarreal a 1-0 first-leg win over a below par Bayern Munich who had no single shot on target until the second half. Villarreal who qualified for the Champions League by beating Manchester United in last season’s Europa League final and knocked Juventus out of the round of 16 yet again showcased their tactical master class by silencing Robert Lewandoski and the free-scoring German champions.
Villarreal manager Unai Emery who defeated Bayern Munich in September of 2017 at the Parc des Princes yet again haunted the German side after ending their 25 away games unbeaten run in the Champions League.
The former Arsenal manager lauded his teams performance terming it an almost perfect game but admits that they will have it tough in the second leg at the Allianz Arena in Germany. “It would have been perfect if we had sealed a bigger advantage, we are not going to rejoice that we have won, as we could have done better at times. We want to be demanding and go one step further. Next week we will find it more difficult.” He said
Other Champions League quarter-final results included Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City seeing off a stubborn Atletico Madrid 1-0 at the Etihad Stadium courtesy of a Kevin de bruyne strike as liverpool Hammered Benfica 3-1 with goals from Ibrahima konate, Sadio Mane and former FC Porto attacker Luis Diaz as Darwin Nunez pulled one back for Benfica.
All eyes turn to the second leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals which are scheduled for April 11th and 12th next week.
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