Lampard’s comeback and record spending still don’t work.
short fuse
Chelsea were in desperate need of reassurance following the return of Frank Lampard as manager. After all, his first match turned out to be bad: the defeat against Wolverhampton (0:1) proved that the well-known trick of shaking up the team through a change of coach does not work even at such a short distance. Apparently, the return is not psychologically considered the appointment of a new mentor. However, there are already many other people in Chelsea.
But the match against Real Madrid was shock enough in itself. The first few minutes of the game proved it. Londoners started merrily, and some might even suspect impudence in this merriment. However, the fuse was enough for a very short time. Rather, Chelsea felt confident, or not all Real Madrid players mentally left the dressing room. And when that happened, holes began to appear in the Londoners’ defense.
Moreover, it cannot be said that for this Real Madrid had to come up with ingenious moves or take unexpected steps. No, Madrid acted quite standard, collected and competent – real experts of the Champions League, who have seen everything in it and where they feel even calmer and more comfortable than in La Liga.
The weaknesses were immediately found in the Chelsea formations and Vinicius started to pull the strings. The saturated center of the field, where a handful of tough guys gathered in the person of Kante, Enzo and Kovacic, looked gelatinous, and in the rear Fofana and Koulibaly didn’t keep up much with the Madrid movement. So in the middle of the half, a tangible advantage from Real Madrid loomed, which turned into the first goal.
During the draw you can see the spectacular soft launch of Carvajal, who acted as attacking midfielder right from the area where the Chelsea watchdogs should have been on duty. Vinicius jumped out from under yesterday’s Upamecano Fofana, whose shot was saved wide by Kepa, but it was not his partner who secured it, but Benzema, who scored another goal.
Quick fall
Lampard, whose team finished the first half with a fortunate conceded goal and showed nothing but the mistakes of Sterling, already mocked for bad manners, decided that with the full breadth of the choice, midway substitutions would not be necessary time. Real Madrid gladly accepted this circumstance and continued to lead Chelsea in the same spirit. Until Koulibaly got injured. Instead of him, Cucurella appeared.
And, in general, it became clear why Lampard did not make substitutions. Chelsea’s uncanny ability in the Todd Boeli era to spend fabulous sums of money but fail to sign the right players will be legendary. Cucurella came out to save the crackling defense. Four minutes after entering the field, Mark successfully missed the position and allowed Rodrigo, who even in a drowsy state bothered Koulibaly, to escape into the open. Caught on a safety net, Chilwell, cursing and fearing the Brazilian, grabbed his arm and dropped him in front of the penalty area. The referee dismissed Ben without hesitation for a foul of last resort.
Here, of course, the question arises of the expediency of such a violation, since Rodrigo nevertheless rushed not directly into the goal, but a little to the side. Sure, it’s no Sterling, but one might expect his breakthrough into the penalty area to be unsuccessful as well. However, Chilwell did not have time to think and made up his mind. Real Madrid failed to score from a dangerous set piece, but now Chelsea had no choice but to salvage a minimal defeat, strange as that sounds.
Saving failed
Lampard immediately removed forwards Felix and Sterling. Many people saw the first in the field right during the substitution, and the departure of the second was cheered up by all the surrounding birds, the fire density of which obviously had to decrease. Instead, Chalobah and Havertz appeared. Kai, in fact, remained the only hope ahead. And at the start, after the substitution, he didn’t attack. Chelsea, with their multi-million pound squad, decided it was possible to calmly face Real Madrid in defense with ten men. “Piano forte. Like a Swiss watch.”
Friendly standing near a wall was beneficial for about ten minutes with a little. The usual corner, in which numerical equality does not seem to be required, wreaked havoc among the ranks of Londoners. While they were trying to figure out who was where, almost taking a can of paint from the referee to mark (from the word “pillar”) their place, Real played a corner, a simple pass from Vinicius’ arc to Asensio, and Marco puts the ball in touch in the bottom corner. Kepa extends his hand, but doesn’t save. The crowd in blue, which was supposed to save him, only interfered with the palisade of legs, in which the ball also bounced slightly.
Subsequently, Chelsea had already made substitutions to restore balance. And he was able to carry out several outnumbered attacks. But they were far from dangerous. “Real” were also quite satisfied with the advantage they got, they did not overload themselves and behaved as if it were not a Champions League quarter-final, but a regular weekend match in Spain.
Numbers
When did Chelsea react a bit? At the start of the first half. But during the break the numbers were horrendous for the guests. Real Madrid made ten shots to Chelsea’s three. And Madrid’s eight tries were accurate, the Londoners having had two. The “real” ball owned 60 percent of the time, the accuracy of the pass reached 92 percent. These are just rivals from a different class, judging by the numbers.
For the second half the situation did not improve, even if there Real Madrid were already putting the Londoners under pressure lined up with a not so clear block. Just eight shots on target with two accurate shots against Chelsea’s four attempts with an accurate shot. And 54% of ball possession by the hosts with 85% accuracy in passing. It seems that Real Madrid also got bored in the second half due to a lack of decent stamina. Therefore, Vinicius, Benzema and Rodrigo calmed down a bit, eventually being replaced by Asensio.
And Marco, by the way, scored his ninth goal in the Champions League after substitutions. This is the best wildcard in the history of the tournament. Second in goal after coming off the bench Champions League shared by Benzema, Solskjaer and Thomas Müller – they have seven goals each. First scorer of the match Benzema scored his 18th goal in 2023 and caught up with the unstoppable Erling Haaland in this indicator. No one else has scored in the top five leagues this calendar year. Interestingly, Benzema has scored his last 11 Champions League goals against English clubs: five Chelsea, three apiece Liverpool and Manchester City.
Chelsea’s offensive impotence deserves a special surprise. We said above that with their spending, the club could not find a normal defender, and not Cucurella. But things aren’t much better in attack either. In the last four games the Blues have failed to score a single goal. You can look up the last time Chelsea haven’t scored in four games in a row. It will take a long time to search. Because it was already in 1993.
But Real Madrid continued their fertile run. In the Champions League play-offs at home he scored for the 31st time in a row. Madrid’s last goalless home match in the relegation stage of the Champions League was against Barcelona in 2011.
By itself, a 2-0 Champions League score doesn’t seem insurmountable for the underdog team heading into the second leg. But everything indicates that Chelsea will simply not be able to close this gap. And if, miraculously, the ball from Sterling’s foot starts flying into the goal and even into the net, then Cucurella and his comrades will provide Real Madrid with goals at Stamford Bridge.
