Tuchel can ‘live with’ Chelsea’s ‘disappointing’ first leg scoreline

Lewis Oldham
Tuchel F365
Thomas Tuchel Chelsea

Thomas Tuchel felt Chelsea deserved to beat Real Madrid in their Champions League semi-final first leg as they conceded “out of nothing” to draw.

Chelsea travelled to Madrid for the first leg. The visitors made a really bright start to the game and they deservedly took the lead in the 14th minute.

Antonio Rudiger found Christian Pulisic with a sublime ball over the top. The American took it down well before he dribbled past former Blues ‘keeper Thibaut Courtois. He made no mistake as he hammered the ball into the net to give his side the lead.


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Real Madrid were not in the game in the early going but they did equalise against the run of play in the 29th minute.

The goal came via a piece of individual brilliance from Karim Benzema, who volleyed it past Edouard Mendy from inside the penalty area.

The second half was not as good on the eye as the first leg finished all square. Madrid’s only shot on target in the game was Benzema’s stunner as Chelsea were rarely troubled.

With their away goal, the Londoners will have a slight advantage heading into next week’s return leg at Stamford Bridge.

As cited by BBC Sport, Tuchel told BT Sport after the game that his side “did not allow” Madrid any chances and they should have scored at least once more:

“We started the game very very well, with a lot of courage and quality,” Tuchel said. “We deserved to win the first half, we had chances. Unfortunately they scored from a set-piece and they had nothing else, we didn’t allow any chances.

“It was a disappointing score at half time. We had to stay calm and not lose confidence. The second half was very tactical, you could feel that we are a bit tired. We only had a few days to recover from another tough away game. We have to live with 1-1.

“The goal was well deserved and we should have scored at least one more. We conceded more or less out of nothing and that can always happen against individual quality.”