A proud Thomas Tuchel hailed his Chelsea heroes last night after their reign as European champions was ended here by Real Madrid.
An unforgettable 3-2 win for the hosts after extra time at the Bernabeu saw the Blues lose 5-4 on aggregate — but Tuchel insists he has no regrets.
Goals from Mason Mount, Antonio Rudiger and Timo Werner put Chelsea on the cusp of an historic Champions League comeback — but Rodrygo’s strike forced the tie into extra time, and then Karim Benzema — who else? — scored the goal that booked Real’s place in the semi-finals.
Tuchel praised the courage of his players. “I think we deserved to go through,” he said. “We were unlucky, but there are no regrets. These are the kind of defeats you can take with pride and you can accept as a sportsman.
“We showed a lot of courage, we showed a lot of quality — and this was the right way to do it. I’m very happy. It’s the way to go forward. We demand a lot from the players and if we have this kind of effort, we are a special team.”
Tuchel admitted Chelsea ultimately paid the price for mistakes made in the first leg, which handed Real a 3-1 lead going into last night’s tie.
“[Madrid] did not create a lot at Stamford Bridge, but they took every half-chance and converted it,” he said. “This was enough. You have to reduce your amount of mistakes — and we could not reduce it to an absolute minimum over the two legs. That is why the deficit was so high.
“Then you come here and play a match like this and we have two crucial ball losses that only against very few teams end in a goal. Against Real Madrid, it is possible.”
Tuchel also hit out at Polish referee Szymon Marciniak. Chelsea’s German manager was angered by the decision to allow VAR to rule out a Marcos Alonso goal for handball without the official reviewing the incident on the pitchside monitor.
And he also criticised Marciniak for “laughing” with Real manager Carlo Ancelotti after the final whistle. “I was disappointed that the referee had a good time with my colleague Carlo Ancelotti,” he said. “I know Carlo is a nice guy, but when I wanted to go and say thank you for the match, I saw him [Marciniak] smiling and laughing loudly with the opponents’ coach.
“I think this is the wrong time to do this after a final whistle from 120 minutes, where one team gave all their hearts and fought until the last drop. You go and see the referee smiling and laughing with the other coach. I think it is very, very bad timing. I told him this.”
Alonso thought he had put Chelsea 3-0 up just after the hour mark, but his celebrations were cut short after VAR spotted the merest of handballs in the build-up to his effort.
Tuchel added: “If you play against Madrid, sometimes you can maybe not expect that everyone has the courage. I felt the little decisions [went against us] in the first leg and the second leg today as well.
“I did not see the goal, but I told him that I was disappointed that he does not come out and check it on his own. In a match like this, where you have a certain line to whistle, you should stay the boss and not give decisions like this to somebody in a chair who is isolated from the atmosphere.
“He has a certain style — certain things that he allows and does not allow — and he follows a certain line, so I think he should stay in charge and check it on his own, then he could also explain it better.”
Tuchel also complained about the amount of stoppage time, saying: “I thought we deserved more minutes in the end, because it felt like we had no minutes to play in the second half of extra time.
“Maybe it is too much to ask for in matches like this, against this opponent. We had it in our hands and we were not lucky enough.”
