Chelsea’s hopes of ending a miserable season with Champions League glory were dashed as they were knocked out by defending champions Real Madrid in the quarter-finals. Sitting 11th in the Premier League, closer to the relegation zone than the top four, the Blues have little to show for their season despite Todd Boehly’s sensational spending spree. This was another frustrating evening for Frank Lampard, who has suffered four successive defeats since his appointment as caretaker manager.
Real Madrid outclassed Chelsea at the Bernabeu, taking a commanding lead in the tie through Karim Benzema’s early tap-in and Marco Asensio’s second-half goal. Chelsea did at least start brightly and threatened Real Madrid’s goal when N’Golo Kante swiped wide from inside the area. They had their best chance of the match on the stroke of half-time as Marc Cucurella found space at the back-post only for Thibaut Courtois to smother the full-back with a superb save.
Despite failing to breach Real Madrid’s defence, Chelsea were still in the tie during the early exchanges of the second half until Rodrygo raced past Trevoh Chalobah before finding Vinicius, who kept his composure in Chelsea’s box before putting it on a plate for Rodrygo to tap in. This deflated the Chelsea players and silenced Stamford Bridge, and Real Madrid cruised through the final half-hour as Federico Valverde took two defenders and Kepa Arrizabalaga out of the game, allowing Rodrygo to score his second goal of the night. With this result, Real Madrid will face either Manchester City or Bayern Munich in the semi-finals.