Chelsea star Reece James endured a challenging evening at Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday night where he had to mark Real Madrid starlet Vinicius Jr. In the weekend defeat to Wolves, James was deployed at right-back but for the Champions League quarter-final Frank Lampard opted for a back five in an attempt to deal with the attacking threat of Carlo Ancelotti's men.
"Partly the reason," Lampard said after the game when asked if the threat of Vinicius Jr was his reason for playing a back five. "I think I had different things to consider. Vinicius one-against-one is a big problem for any team so we wanted to created two-against-ones on that side of the pitch. It didn't help getting the yellow card for Fofana so early, it makes you nervous. He's a player that is very good."
As the Blues interim boss mentioned, an early booking for Fofana presented Chelsea with a difficult challenge on the left-hand side. Vinicius was a constant thorn in the side of James and Fofana and while the duo mostly dealt with his threat there was a particular moment in the second half where that was far from the case.
