Real Madrid advance as Chelsea's awful season continues
Real Madrid knocked Chelsea out of the Champions League on Tuesday with a 2-0 victory at Stamford Bridge. The aggregate 4-0 score over the two legs was a comfortable experience for Los Blancos.
The Blues entered the night needing a major comeback in order to qualify for the semifinals. Real won the previous leg of the tie 2-0 back in Madrid a week ago. Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio grabbed the two goals for the Spanish side.
Chelsea started Tuesday’s match on the front foot. Despite the relatively large hole to climb out of, Stamford Bridge was boisterous at the start. With the crowd fully behind them, the Blues looked like a completely different team. N’Golo Kante and Marc Cucurella, however, both missed massive chances inside the first half. The wasteful opportunities going forward has been a theme for the club all season.
Rodrygo fires Real into UCL semifinals
Instead, Real stuck to their guns and grew into the game as time went out. Their breakthrough finally came in the in the 58th minute. Rodrygo raced uncovered down the right flank and passed the ball to fellow winger Vinicius Junior near the Blues goal. Vinicius then squared a clever ball back to Rodrygo who slotted passed Kepa Arrizabalaga for the goal.
Rodrygo added his second strike of the game with 10 minutes remaining on the clock. Vinicius was once again one of the creative forces for the goal. The Brazilian star found Federico Valverde rushing towards goal. Valverde then made the simple pass to Rodrygo who put the ball into the empty net from just a few yards away.
Real will now move on to the Champions League semifinals. The Spanish giants will most likely face their third consecutive English opponent in the competition. Manchester City are currently 3-0 up on Bayern Munich with the second leg to be played on Wednesday.
Chelsea’s calamitous campaign continues
However, Chelsea’s disastrous campaign now gets worse. The Blues now can’t win a trophy this season and sit 11th in the Premier League table. They have even failed to collect a victory in each of their last seven matches. This comes after team owner Todd Boehly spent nearly $600 million on new players during the two transfer windows. Along with failed player transfers, the American businessman has made some interesting managerial decisions as well.
Chelsea hired their third head coach of the season when they brought back former midfielder Frank Lampard at the beginning of the month. Lampard has now lost all four matches at the helm since his return. The decision to bring back the former club legend was a bit hard to understand given Lampard’s recent coaching record.
Following the second Real loss, Lampard has now won just one of his last 18 total matches manning the sidelines. This goes back to his tumultuous time at Everton as well. Since he took over the Toffees in January of 2022, Lampard has just a 25% win rate as a head coach.
Lampard was brought in as a caretaker until a permanent manager could be named in the summer. However, Chelsea may be looking to speed up the hiring process on their managerial search.
Photo: IMAGO / Colorsport