IN WITH A GREAT SHOUT
Advantage Chelsea as Pulisic rocks Real
CHRISTIAN PULISIC struck a crucial away goal as Chelsea secured a 1-1 draw at Real Madrid in their Champions League semi-final first leg.
The American winger put the visitors in front on 14 minutes, bringing down Antonio Rudiger’s long ball before rounding former Blues goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and slotting in past two defenders. Thomas Tuchel’s side dominated the early exchanges but missed a host of good chances, including two by Timo Werner, and were made to pay on the half-hour when Karim Benzema volleyed in the equaliser. The second leg takes place on May 5.
IN filthy conditions, and beneath a sodden blue baseball cap, Thomas Tuchel will have been a very happy man. An away goal and another creditable performance for Chelsea in Europe, leaves them a home victory — or even a goalless draw — away from their third Champions League final.
Tuchel will fancy his chances, too. This was his fifth meeting with Zinedine Zidane, Real Madrid’s coach, and he is yet to lose. A win and four draws is his record, and Chelsea showed last night they have every chance of keeping Tuchel’s run going.
This was a fine display from a team vastly inexperienced compared to their opponents. This Madrid team is the most storied and successful in the competition, yet it did not look way here.
Chelsea had the better chances, took an early lead, and were only denied by an exceptional equaliser from Karim Benzema. With a striker of his calibre, Chelsea would have won. Much like Manchester City, they must start next season with a forward capable of defining the biggest matches.
Typical was an incident in the 71st minute when Hakim Ziyech whipped an excellent ball from the left into the penalty area. A striker might have sensed the potential and driven for it — to be fair Frank Lampard as a player would have, too.
Kai Havertz in the middle simply seemed slow on the uptake and the moment was lost. Real Madrid may well have Sergio Ramos back for the return leg, too. This is not going to get any easier.
Still, in the circumstances and given Liverpool’s fate in the previous round at the Estadio Alfredo di Stefano, this was a fine result. Tuchel would no doubt have shaken hands on it before kick-off, even if he will be disappointed to have lost the lead.
Yet Chelsea defended well in the periods when Madrid threatened, and they thwarted the lines commonly exploited by Madrid’s playmakers.
Certainly, they matched Madrid for cussedness and that will be needed again at Stamford Bridge next Wednesday.
This doesn’t have the feel of a high-scoring tie.
It may be that keeping Madrid at arm’s length is Chelsea’s best path to the final.
They’ve certainly got that in them — just four goals conceded to here in the entire competition. Soaked he may have been, but Tuchel would have been smiling on the inside. They looked very comfortable. Again.
As effective as Zidane’s tactics were against Liverpool, so they held his team back here.
Three at the back was a surprise, no doubt to mirror Chelsea’s tactics, but his players seems unsure of it, too.
Chelsea had by far the better of the opening exchanges, got in behind Madrid, played balls over the top and Zidane’s most creative players, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, looked out of it.
Chelsea were ahead after 14 minutes — but that really should have been their second of the night.
Alas, Timo Werner. We can all see why Thomas Tuchel perseveres with him, his speed, his positioning, his work-rate, but his smarts as a finisher have been sadly missing this season.
It isn’t just his goal return that is lacking. He gets into great areas, the ball arrives, but the end product is woeful.
So it was after just 10 minutes in Spain. Mason Mount broke forward, an excellent run down the left and his cross picked Christian Pulisic out at the far post. A deflection had taken much of the sting out of the pass and Pulisic rightly decided to put in a team-mate rather than go for goal.
The set-up for Werner, in the middle, was perfect. The shot was not. It lacked power and was struck straight at Thibaut Courtois from close range, a very disappointing effort. Chelsea should have been a goal up. Fortunately, they did not have to wait too much longer for their just deserts.
It was another example of a foreign coach in English football not being afraid to play long. Early on, it was plainly one of Tuchel’s tactics, when an English coach might be wary of the criticism that results from travelling by route one. No such self-consciousness for the Germans. Antonio Rudiger took the ball close to the halfway line and dropped it sweetly between two Madrid defenders, with Pulisic timing his clever run just right. He collected the ball and, unlike some teammates, did not panic. Courtois came out to try to thwart him, dived at his feet, almost got a hand to the ball, but Pulisic took it round him. White shirts were massing on the goal-line but Pulisic avoided them too. His shot clipped Raphael Varane on its way to goal, but not in a way that could prevent the inevitable. It was the first goal Courtois had conceded in six hours and 44 minutes, but entirely merited. Chelsea had been outstanding to this point. Another counter-attack, N’Golo Kante finding Pulisic who moved the ball on to Ben Chilwell, ended
with a weak shot wide at the far post, but slowly Madrid came back into the game with Benzema very much at the heart of their revival.
In the 23rd minute, teed up by Vinicius Junior, he struck a shot from 25 yards that clipped the outside of a post — then six minutes later got the equaliser that erased much of Chelsea’s excellent early work.
It started with a short Kroos corner, out to Modric, and on to Marcelo, who struck a deep cross, headed back across goal by Casemiro. Eder Militao then won the second header for Benzema to keep it up before smashing the ball over his shoulder on the volley.
Edouard Mendy had no chance. It was a brilliant goal — the work of the man who has truly stepped up to the plate for Madrid in the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo, the role it was said Gareth Baler would assume.
Now, Madrid had their tails up. In teeming rain, they grew in confidence, Kroos trying a shot from range after 32 minutes that curled just wide, Benzema trying his luck from a similar position early in the second half. The game had slowed by now, and Madrid seemed more comfortable with that.
The modern Madrid lack the fireworks of the Galactico era but that does not make them an inferior team.