Chelsea icon and now pundit Joe Cole has admitted that Real Madrid star Karim Benzema would have put away the chances Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic missed in the Champions League quarter-finals.
The veteran striker netted four goals over the two legs against the Blues as he was the one to ultimately put to end Thomas Tuchel's side's hopes of potentially retaining their European crown. But a few of the four goals were down to individual errors from the likes of Edouard Mendy, Andreas Christensen and Thiago Silva in the first leg and Antonio Rudiger in the second game.
Ultimately, individual errors from the Blues coupled with Benzema's individual quality was enough for Los Blancos to progress to the next stage, where one of Atletico Madrid or Man City awaits the 13-time winners. "They did not create a lot at Stamford Bridge, but they took every half chance and converted it. This answers your question. 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," Tuchel said in his post-match press conference when reflecting on the Les Bleus striker.
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"Then you come here and play a match like this and, as I said, we have two crucial ball losses that only against very few teams end in a goal. Against Real Madrid, it is possible. Still, even over both legs and today, I think we deserved to go through. We were unlucky, but there are no regrets. These are the kind of defeats you can take with pride and accept as a sportsman."
With a 26-goal difference this term between Benzema and Chelsea's club-record signing Romelu Lukaku, who missed the second leg through an injury picked up during his mini cameo in the first leg, it's no wonder that the German is reportedly targeting a new marksman in the summer with Benfica's Darwin Nunez eyed despite Kai Havertz and Timo Werner's improvement in form.
Could the Uruguayan touted as the 'next Edinson Cavani' be the west Londoners' own version of Benzema? Cole believes a player with similar qualities and attributes to Benzema would have buried some of the chances Havertz and Pulisic missed at the Bernabeu on Tuesday night.
"The tie in the nutshell was Real Madrid had Karim Benzema, a seasoned No.9 and centre-forward that is just there [high level]," he evaluated on BT Sport. "Chelsea had three No.10's playing there. Not quite as clinical but have other attributes.
"But if you had a player, Lukaku was supposed to be that player, come in and completes the jigsaw, a Benzema type of striker put those chances away for Chelsea and they then go through to the semi-finals. That's the difference."
The Lukaku example of splashing that significant amount of money is a lesson that the new set of Chelsea owners may need to learn from the Roman Abramovich era, with smarter signings for the money spent. Something that the Todd Boehly offer includes as the part-time LA Dodgers owner aims to turn the west London outfit into a more Liverpool type of model.
Chelsea Fans- could Darwin Nunez be the Blues' own version of Karim Benzema in the long-term? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!
