Dominant Real Madrid defeated Chelsea comfortably at their 81,044 seater stadium courtesy of goals from Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio.
Reak Madrid’s line-up and formation
The team tutored by Carlo Ancelotti lined-up in a 4-3-3 pattern with Courtois in goal, Carvajal, Militao, Alaba, Camavinga, Valverde, Kroos, Modric, Rodrygo, Benzema and Vinicius completing the first XI.
Chelsea’s lineup and formation for the Real Madrid game
Frank Lampard set up his Chelsea side in a 3-5-2 formation with Kepa in goal, Fofana, Silva, Koulibaly, James, Kante, Fernandez, Kovacic, Chilwell, Sterling and Felix.
The away side got the game underway as Joao Felix kicked things off from the center circle and right from the blast of the whistle, Real Madrid completely dominated the West London side.
Chelsea had the first big chance of the game from a counter attacking play, after N’golo Kante drove into the half of Real Madrid before setting up Felix in attack, he wasn’t marked by the on rushing Camavinga but the Frenchman did enough to force him wide.
Joao Felix then fired a shot straight at Belgian goalie Thibaut Courtois who parried the ball away for a corner in favour of Chelsea.
Wesley Fofana picked up the first yellow card of the game in the fifth minute following a foul on Vinicius. Two minutes later, Eduardo Camavinga was also shown a yellow card after fouling Raheem Sterling.
In the 12th minute, the home side got a massive chance following a Benzema and Rodrygo combination in the box and after receiving the pass Benzema fired a shot into the gloves of Kepa.
Karim Benzema took Real Madrid into the lead
Cometh the hour, cometh the man! as 9 minutes later, Karim Benzema opened the scoring for Real Madrid after a well played ball into the box with Vinicius running in behind with pace.
Vinicius then set it on a silver platter for Karim Benzema although it got a little touch from Kepa but it wasn’t enough to change the direction of the ball, Benzema tapped the ball into an open net to take Madrid into the lead.
In the 34th minute, Chilwell lost the ball in midfield and Rodrygo gained control of the ball before combining with Karim Benzema to get into the area.
The Frenchman then sets up Rodrygo who fired a low shot from a tight angle which was parried by Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Los Blancos continued to dictate play and they had several chances in the first 45 to double their advantage but the opening half ended with Madrid taking a slim lead into the break.
Two more big chances were seen in the first half by Alaba and Valverde with the first coming on the 40th minute following a cross from Modric but David Alaba’s shot couldn’t trouble Kepa.
The other chance seen by Valverde was from a loose touch by Wesley Fofana, Valverde had many players to pass to in Chelsea’s half but he smashes a strong low attempt towards goal, direct into the waiting hands of Kepa.
The first half finished 1-0 with Real Madrid massively the better of the two sides in the game.
How the second half of the encounter panned out
The second 45 started with both teams going at it for the opening moments of the half before Vinicius broke onto the left wing and afterwards making a cut back to Benzema.
Benzema seeing he didn’t have any space to shoot at the edge of the box decided to lay it onto Modric but the Croatian arrived late, side-footing a curled shot which appeared like it was headed for top corner but it went inches above the bar.
Ben Chilwell was red-carded for a foul on Rodrygo
Frank Lampard introduced Marc Cucurella for Kalidou Koulibaly in the 55th minute and 4 minutes later, Chelsea sunk into further troubles after Chilwell was shown a red card for pulling back Rodrygo by the shoulder just outside the box.
In the 61st minute after the red card to Ben Chilwell, David Alaba fired a low free-kick that went underneath the Chelsea wall before being well received by Kepa as it was straight at him.
Chelsea made two substitutions in the 65th minute with the introduction of Kai Havertz for Raheem Sterling and Trevor Chalobah for Joao Felix.
Carlo Ancelotti then made his own set of substitutions 6 minutes later bringing on Marco Asensio for Rodrygo and Antonio Rudiger for Eduardo Camavinga.
Marco Asensio completed the job for Real Madrid in the evening
The victory was confirmed and rubber stamped in the 74th minute after substitute, Marco Asensio doubled the White Angel’s lead over the Blues.
Vinicius squared the ball to the edge of the box and Asensio came in to fire an instant finish into the bottom corner.
Chelsea made two more changes introducing Conor Gallagher for N’Golo Kante and Mason Mount for Thiago Silva.
The Spanish heavyweights made an additional substitution in the 81st minute bringing on Dani Ceballos for Luka Modric.
In the 83rd minute, Eder Militao got into the referee’s book after barging Marc Cucurella. A minute later, Aurelien Tchouamemi came on for Toni Kroos.
On minute 87, Daniel Carvajal and Mateo Kovacic were both brandished yellow cards, Kovacic’s yellow card was for confronting the Madrid man following a foul on his teammate, Cucurella while that of Carvajal for the initial foul on Cucurella.
Five minutes were added as additional time in the second half and Chelsea got a big chance in the 3rd minute after Cucurella’s cross into the centre deflected into Mount’s direction.
Mason Mount turned Militao and fired a shot at goal but ex-Chelsea defender Rudiger slides over to block the attempt with Courtois clearly beaten.
Another defeat for Chelsea!
It ended in agony and dispair for the English side at the Santiago Bernabeu in Spain. Defeats are looking like a normalcy for Chelsea these days and they seemingly don’t know what to do to change for the better.
Real Madrid would be delighted with the win, bouncing back from a 3-2 loss to Villarreal over the weekend and having one leg into the Semi-final.
Vinicius Junior was given the Man Of The Match award in the game for a sublime performance throughout the match.
Match Highlights Below:
