The Champions League will boast an all English final for the second time in three years as Chelsea beat Real Madrid to book their place in what promises to be a great climax of European football against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. Here are five things we learnt from last night’s game.
Chelsea look like they’ll never concede
Despite letting Real Madrid have a lot of the ball yesterday, Chelsea’s defence looked impenetrable. The back three of Thiago Silva, Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen were stellar last night, as were their wingbacks Ben Chilwell and Cesar Azpilicueta.
Despite many saying Azpilicueta has had his day as a defender out wide, he performed so well last night against Ferland Mendy and Marco Asensio. Since Thomas Tuchel has come in, he has transformed his team’s defence into one of the best in Europe. A lot of credit must be given to Edouard Mendy as well, he made some massive saves, including a superb one down to his left to deny Karim Benzema at 0-0, so props all round to Chelsea’s men at the back.
Chelsea need to take their chances
As much as Chelsea will revel in this victory, it really should have been a lot more comfortable. They should have scored at least three or four in the first half – it was a mixture of being unfortunate and just not being ruthless enough. In a sense, it was lucky that Real Madrid didn’t take the chances that were presented to them, because it could have been a whole different game had they taken the lead early on.
This seems like a very obvious thing to say, but now the Blues are in a final, the kind of chances that presented themselves to the team last night that were missed, cannot be wasted in just over three weeks time. They’ve been let off before and it certainly won’t happen in the final.
How does Mateo Kovacic regain his starting place in the Blues squad?
Before his injury, Mateo Kovacic was one of the best players under Tuchel, but looking at how a fasting N’Golo Kante and a rejuvenated Jorginho are performing, it is becoming increasingly difficult to see how Kovacic returns to being a regular starter.
Nobody expected to see a pivot of Kante and Jorginho perform so well together, with their skillsets not being the best blends of what Chelsea supporters wanted to see. But Tuchel has worked his magic yet again, getting the best out of players who seemed to be ‘past it’.
It’ll be tough to see if Kovacic doesn’t return from injury to his starting place in midfield, but if it means starting Kante and Jorginho for the remainder of the season, Blues fans will all for it, I’m sure.
Confidence is showing
Chelsea’s confidence is really shining through at the moment and last night, we saw some flair from a lot of their players last night which was so refreshing to see. Flicks, fancy passes and calm play from the team was a sign that they really are starting to believe in themselves and that they are enjoying being out there at the pinnacle of European football.
Thomas Tuchel has been here and reached a final, only to fall short against Bayern Munich, which is nothing to be ashamed of and with the belief that his players have right now, I cannot wait for the final to see how the players deal with the pressure.
This Saturday is a dress rehearsal for the final
Manchester City await Chelsea in Istanbul on May 29th, and they await them this Saturday in what will be a feisty league clash. City can move one step closer to winning the league with victory against Chelsea this weekend, as Tuchel’s side continue their fight to solidify top four, before they face each other in the Champions League final.
The fact Chelsea beat them in the FA Cup semi final almost three weeks ago will give the London side hope, despite Pep rotating his squad considerably, but I’m expecting another brilliant game in both in two days time and in Istanbul come the end of May. What a next few weeks we have in store.