Chelsea fell to a heart-breaking 5-4 aggregate loss to Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League quarter-final after two legs.
Most of the damage was done in the Stamford Bridge leg with manager Thomas Tuchel saying that his side needed a "perfect script" if they were to progress to the semi-final stage. And it so nearly was perfect as the Blues were 3-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu and arguably should have had four after all of Mason Mount, Antonio Rudiger, Timo Werner and Marcos Alonso scoring great goals.
The latter of the quartet's goal though was ruled out for an adjudged handball despite former referee Peter Walton claiming that there wasn't enough evidence for the VAR to overturn it. Once that moment happened coupled with Rodrygo's remarkable goal to level the tie once more, Karim Benzema's inevitable moment came in extra time as he a lapse in concentration allowed Los Blancos to deliver the final blow.
READ MORE: What Karim Benzema wanted from Reece James as Chelsea star becomes Thomas Tuchel's assistant
"We are very disappointed and very proud at the same time," Tuchel said in his post-match press conference. "We played a fantastic match and deserved what we had. We scored four goals and had big chances to score even more. We were unlucky, that's why we are disappointed. We got beaten by pure individual quality and offensive conversion after our mistakes.
"Unfortunately, we had two mistakes after ball wins, and they were the most crucial moments in games against Real Madrid. In the end, we were unlucky. We deserved to go through after this performance and match today, but it was not meant to be. As you know, in games like these, you need luck and it was not on our side." With last night still fresh in the minds of most, football.london rounds up the National Media reaction to what turned out to be a great tie to watch for the neutral over the two games.
The Guardian
"How do you kill that which cannot be killed? Sanctioned, escrowed, hawked about the place like a bag of meat in a country pub: but still that self‑fuelling, indissoluble substance that is Chelsea Football Club continued to roll along on an extraordinary night at the Bernabeu.
"There was defeat with honour for Chelsea here, a 3-2 win over 120 thrilling gruelling, relentlessly high‑craft minutes that translated into a 5-4 loss on aggregate. But the numbers hardly told the story, on an evening that felt also like a kind of farewell, a Viking funeral for an undeniably glorious part of this club’s history.
"It seemed fitting Chelsea’s three starting academy players were among the stars. Mason Mount was teak-tough, whip-smart and a relentless pest for Madrid’s midfield. Ruben Loftus-Cheek ran himself into the ground.
"But the real heart of Chelsea’s act of resisting to the fates was Reece James, whose defensive performance in the Bernabeu was jaw-droppingly fine, so good that Chelsea’s main concern now must be a business plan convincing enough to keep him on the staff."
The Telegraph
"The night belonged to Karim Benzema, which is the way everyone suspected it might end, although by the time Real Madrid’s famous No 9 scored his decisive fourth goal of the tie even he may have wondered if this was to be one of the Bernabeu’s most traumatic nights.
"This Champions League quarter-final that looked like it was over last week had been in Chelsea’s hands - only for four minutes before it tumbled out of their grasp but what had preceded those four minutes had been astonishing. A comeback to compare with any other in the competition’s history, and unprecedented for an English club in the Bernabeu. Three goals without reply that put Chelsea into the lead on aggregate and within sight of the semi-finals.
"Their 3-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge had been made good, and only then did it start to fall apart. Before then there had been four goals from the European champions, one of them scratched out by VAR, until at last Real got their act together. Mason Mount, Antonio Rudiger and then Timo Werner had scored and the flavour of the evening up to that 75th minute was a dreadful reckoning for Real and Carlo Ancelotti and this strange team he marshals of famous survivors of eras past.
"But then, Real are Real, Benzema is the one of the great goalscorers of the age, and they found a way back. It started with a ball from the outside of Luka Modric’s right boot, what might be one of the last great flourishes from the old master, that landed the ball at the feet of substitute Rodrygo, to score. That was 3-1 on the night and 4-4 on aggregate and then in the sixth minute of extra-time, Benzema scored to make it 5-4 over the two games – his fourth goal of the tie. By then this Real team, triumphant at Stamford Bridge, looked shattered."
The Daily Mail
"Karim Benzema. Again. Not three this time, but one. The one that broke Chelsea’s hearts.
"They will not get the credit they deserve for this performance, that is the pity. It will go down as a defeat when on the night Chelsea won; it will go down as a victory by a margin of one, when on 90 minutes Chelsea led by two, which would have been a first for an English team in the Bernabeu.
"Chelsea lost in extra-time, when Benzema scored and they did not. And they lost in the first leg, by giving themselves such an obstacle to climb. Yet the rest of it was theirs. This was a great European performance, which is probably why it hurts so much to be playing no further part.
"Yes, Chelsea conceded twice having raced to a 3-0 lead in 75 minutes. Yet Real Madrid are a good side. It was always going to be hard to contain them once the reality of elimination hit home. And that moment of revelation occurred when Timo Werner scored Chelsea’s third of the night. Even at 2-0 down, Madrid seemed to be sleepwalking.
"Suddenly, when the aggregate score shifted to 4-3 in Chelsea’s favour, an alarm went off. Wake up, wake up, wake up. And they did."
The Sun
"FORGET the miracle of Munich or the ten-man comeback against Barcelona in 2012.
"Because this was Chelsea’s greatest performance in Europe, a night of pure bloody brilliance from Thomas Tuchel’s heroes.
"In the end the trophy they won last year had to be prised from their fingers by the remarkable Karim Benzema, whose extra-time strike finally settled this extraordinary match.
"Yet Chelsea were still able to leave the Bernabeu with their heads held high after giving the 13-time European champions the absolute fright of their lives.
"Left with a seemingly impossible task after last week’s home leg, they reached the very summit of football’s Mount Everest with a performance which even their own manager thought was beyond them."
