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.
