Thomas Tuchel said on Monday that it would take a "fantastic script" for Chelsea to overcome Real Madrid in their Champions League quarter-final. After 75 minutes of the second leg at the Bernabeu on Tuesday, with Chelsea leading 3-0 following Timo Werner's goal, and 4-3 on aggregate, Tuchel would probably have deemed the script Oscar worthy.
There were further plot twists to come. Rodrygo forced extra-time when he volleyed a sublime outside of the boot pass from Luka Modric to the net. Six minutes into extra-time, Karim Benzema put Real ahead on aggregate when he headed Vinícius Júnior's cross past Édouard Mendy.
RODRYGOOOOOAAAALLLL! 🇧🇷⚽️
The Brazilian makes it 𝟰-𝟰 on aggregate, but WHAT A BALL from Modric 🤩🇭🇷#UCL pic.twitter.com/wVVJ3fv549
— Watch the UCL on LiveScore 🇮🇪 (@LiveScoreIE) April 12, 2022
Despite being the first English side to score three goals at Bernabéu since Manchester United in 1968, Chelsea - the defending champions - were out of the competition.
The match was a rollercoaster ride for Thomas Tuchel, one that took another dip when he approached referee Szymon Marciniak at full time and found him laughing with Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti. Some angry words from Tuchel followed.
"I was disappointed that the referee had a good time with my colleague, Carlo Ancelotti," said Tuchel.
"I know that Carlo is a gentleman and a nice guy, but when I wanted to go and say thank you for the match, I saw him laughing and smiling and laughing loudly with the opponent’s coach.
"I think this is a very wrong time to do this after the final whistle and 126 minutes, and one team giving their heart and fighting to the very last drop, and you go as a coach and see the referee smiling and laughing with the other coach.
"I think it’s very very bad timing, and I told him this."
'Chelsea deserved to go through'
18 minutes into the second half, Chelsea had a Marcos Alonso goal disallowed by VAR for a handball by the Spaniard. The referee not going to check the goal himself angered Tuchel.
"Maybe I get problems [if I talk]," he said.
"If you play against Real Madrid, you can maybe expect that not everybody has the courage. I felt the little decisions, also in the first leg, and also the second leg... I did not see the goal but I told him I am super disappointed that he doesn’t come and check [the footage of the handball] on his own.
"You should stay the boss, and not give decisions like this to someone sitting in a chair, isolated from the atmosphere. He should stay in charge and check it on his own and explain it better.
"I thought we deserved more minutes [added on] at the end. Maybe it is too much to ask for in matches like this against this opponent. Listen, we had it in our hands and we were not lucky enough."
Benzema turns it round 𝗔𝗚𝗔𝗜𝗡! 🤯
This game is a 𝖈𝖑𝖆𝖘𝖘𝖎𝖈#UCL pic.twitter.com/fhXozLbXDz
— Watch the UCL on LiveScore 🇮🇪 (@LiveScoreIE) April 12, 2022
Tuchel added that he felt Chelsea "deserved" to go through following Tuesday's performance.
"We are very disappointed, and we are very proud at the same time," he said.
"We played a fantastic match, we scored four goals [one of them from Marcos Alonso which was disallowed]. We had big chances to score even more, but we were unlucky, that’s why we are disappointed.
"We got beaten by pure individual quality and conversion, offensive conversion of our mistakes, unfortunately we had two mistakes after ball wins, the most crucial moment in games against Real Madrid.
"In the end we were unlucky, we deserved to go through after this performance and after this match today, but it wasn’t meant to be."
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