April 19 – Real Madrid and Rodrygo picked their moments and carved Chelsea apart to eliminate the London club 4-0 on aggregate from the Champions League and march into the last four.
Trailing 2-0 from the first leg, Chelsea lost with the same scoreline. In the first half, Chelsea were on the front foot but failed to find the net. They were however not short of excellent chances. Marc Cucurella had a golden opportunity swatted aside by Thibaut Courtois, who charged off his line to smother the close range-attempt. It was a characteristically decisive save by the Belgian. Earlier in the half, N’golo Kante skewed his shot from a bouncing ball.
Ever present in the game, the Frenchman botched another fine chance from close range after the break in what were the 45 most important minutes of Chelsea’s season. They needed two goals, but their profligacy was not helping.
Toward the hour mark, Chelsea’s pressure was building but instead, the holders decided the tie with a brilliant breakaway of Brazilian design, Rodrygo working the ball towards Vinicius who laid it back with great composure for Rodrygo to score, 1-0.
It was the perfect counter and the end of any dream Chelsea and Frank Lampard might have harboured. The new Chelsea interim coach resorted to a triple substitution with all of Raheem Sterling, Joao Felix and Mykhailo Mudryk coming on in the 67th minute, but the belief was gone in the English ranks.
In the 80th minute, Rodrygo struck again on the counter thanks to brilliant build-up play by Vinicius and Valverde with a superb assist. Rodrygo’s second sent Madrid into the last four and Chelsea’s fans to the exit gates.
“You don’t want to praise the performance too much when you lose at this level but we were much improved,” said Lampard. “This club has been further in this competition and the players can take this feeling forward with them for the future.”
At Stamford Bridge, the inquest with a fourth defeat out of four for Lampard will continue while Madrid can prepare for another semi-final, their eleventh out of their last 13 Champions League campaigns.
They will probably meet a third English opponent in a row as Manchester City travel to Bayern Munich on Wednesday defending a 3-0 lead from the first leg.
In the night’s other quarter-final, AC Milan staged the perfect hold-up in Naples. The hosts dominated for 90 minutes, but the visitors prevailed through a goal from Oliver Giroud, who earlier on had failed to convert a penalty. In the second half, Milan’s goalkeeper Mike Maignan saved a spot kick from Chvitsja Kvaratschelia and the drama kept going until the end when Victor Osimhen equalized with a bullet header in the third minute of injury time. It was however too little too late for Napoli.
Milan had won the first leg 1-0 in the San Siro and will meet the winner of Inter vs Benfica in the semi-finals. Their crosstown rivals enjoy a 2-0 advantage over their Portuguese visitors.
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