Real Madrid survived a scare against Chelsea to secure a place in the semi-finals of the Champions League, with a goal from substitute Rodrygo Goes and Karim Benzema’s extra-time goal cancelled out the Blues’ dominant display.
Chelsea drew the first blood in the 15th minute as Mason Mount found the right corner of the post, the midfielder made no mistake to convert from a close range following a nice display from Timo Werner.
The visitors had another promising attempt this time the effort of Antonio Rudiger narrowly miss the target as the home team was able to hold on.
Chelsea’s early goal gave the home team some hope as they aim to overturn the first leg defeat, no doubt the visiting team was the team of the opening 45 minutes.
Real Madrid began to show frustration, Karim Benzema was unable to hold his nerves after launching a clumsy challenge on an opponent which resulted in a yellow card.
Real Madrid’s first-half performance was nothing to write home about as the Carlo Ancelotti’s men had no shot on goal in the entire first half as Chelsea denied the host space to execute their plans.
Real Madrid got off to a shaky start in the second half with Chelsea throwing everything at the home team and it took no long before the Blues were rewarded with a goal as Rudiger jumped high to convert a header, the defender sent in a powerful header which was beyond the reach of Thibaut Courtois to make it 2-0 and the clash to 3-3 on aggregate in the 51st minute of the match.
Ancelotti decides to shake things up as he made the first substitution with Toni Kroos making way for Eduardo Camavinga with 17 minutes remaining, the tides switches in favour of Chelsea despite the tactical change with Werner netting the third for the Blues in the 75th minute, with the Blues turning the tie on 3-4 aggregate.
Ancelotti adjusted his tactical changes with another two changes with Marcelo and Rodrygo Goes coming in for Ferland Mendy and Casemiro respectively in the 78th minute.
The Brazilian attacker wasted no time to make the score 3-1 and restored parity on 4-4 aggregate following a Luka Modic assist.
Tuchel made his first substitute as Christian Pulisic was introduced to replace Werner.
The game went to extra-time thanks to Rodrygo’s late goal, Vinicius and Karim Benzema came into the party and combined well to get the second goal for Los Blancos, Tuchel reacted with a quick substitution with N’Golo Kante replaced with Hakim Ziyech.
Real Madrid secured a 5-4 aggregate win over Chelsea to advance to the semi-finals.
By Iseghoni Odianosen/TheCable
