Thibaut Courtois has played down talk of Real Madrid being fortunate to progress into the last four of the Champions League after a dramatic two-legged tie against his former team Chelsea.
Los Blancos eventually dumped the reigning champions out of the competition, but not without the Blues putting up quite the fight as they were tasked with overturning a 3-1 deficit from the first leg at Stamford Bridge. Thomas Tuchel's side came incredibly close to what would have been a shock victory and while they did win on the night, it wasn't enough.
Mason Mount opened the scoring inside the opening 15 minutes, before Antonio Rudiger's second-half header ensured the tie was now level on aggregate. Timo Werner put Chelsea in front having made it 3-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu, but a magical moment from Luka Modric to tee up Rodrygo sent the game into extra-time.
Having been kept eerily quiet for the majority of the 90 minutes prior, Chelsea failed to nullify Karim Benzema in extra-time and the Frenchman's 96th minute header was eventually enough to send the hosts through despite a valiant effort from their visitors.
The Blues were the better side on the night, but the extra bit of quality Real Madrid can call upon ensured they are still in the running for what would be a staggering 14th Champions League title. Chelsea were left kicking themselves due to surrendering their lead and spurning some glorious chances.
Christian Pulisic, Hakim Ziyech, Kai Havertz and Jorginho all had opportunities of their own in extra-time to force the tie into a penalty shootout, but all four fluffed their lines. After the game, Courtois was reluctant to admit there may have been a touch of good fortune in his side's progression.
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"We weren’t lucky, but it’s true that they were the better team. We ultimately won the tie," the Belgian claimed. Tuchel revealed in his post-match presser that he was proud of his troops.
"We are very disappointed and very proud at the same time because we played a fantastic match," the Germain explained. In the end we were unlucky. We deserved to go through after this performance and match today but it was not meant to be. You need luck in games like this and it was not on our side.
"Over both legs and for sure today we deserved to go through. Unlucky but there are no regrets. These are the kind of defeats that you can take with pride. You accept as a sportsman."
