It is quite damning that over £100m worth of talent came off Chelsea's bench as legs tired in Tuesday night's pulsating Champions League quarterfinal and made little impact. It is fair to contextualise players' own shortcomings and inability to enact their coach's plan rather than purely being symbolic of a wider issue.
But as Carlo Ancelotti turned to his bench and called on the fresh legs of Rodrygo, who latched onto Luka Modric's ridiculous pass to level the tie, and Eduardo Camavinga, who injected a level of energy at the perfect moment to drain Chelsea of confidence.
Christian Pulisic, Hakim Ziyech, Jorginho and Saul Niguez were called upon to replace Timo Werner, N'Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek. The level of intensity and tactical precision was lost, and momentum devastatingly swung in Los Blancos' favour to define who would progress to the semi-final.
