Chelsea on Wednesday made Real Madrid look ordinary as goals from Timo Werner and Mason Mount sealed a 2-0 victory that ousted Madrid from the UEFA Champions League 3-1 on aggregate.
Chelsea’s decision to fire a club legend suddenly does not seem so callous after all.
While Frank Lampard’s name has hardly been forgotten by the Chelsea fans — there were chants outside Stamford Bridge before the game began — new manager Thomas Tuchel is quickly creating his own legacy after leading the London club into the Champions League final against Manchester City.
Photo: AFP
Perhaps the stragglers leaving the bars near Stamford Bridge could hear the roar Tuchel let out on the field inside the empty stadium long after his players had departed the field.
It will certainly have been heard in the Chelsea boardroom by the directors, whose decision in January to dismiss Lampard and hire Tuchel now seems vindicated.
“I am very grateful and thankful to have this opportunity,” said Tuchel, who had been dismissed by Paris Saint-Germain in December last year, despite leading the French club to last year’s Champions League final. “You can never be ahead of plan as a manager and as a player — it does not exist.”
Photo: AFP
Just like when owner Roman Abramovich made mid-season managerial changes in the 2007-2008 and 2011-2012 seasons, Chelsea are to end the campaign by contesting the biggest game in European soccer.
By the end of this month, two Champions League trophies could be at Stamford Bridge, with Chelsea the first club to reach the men’s and women’s finals in the same season.
Even though the men’s showpiece is to be an all-English encounter on May 29, the Premier League rivals will have to fly four hours to play the UEFA showpiece in Istanbul, Turkey, which is in a COVID-19 lockdown.
While City have never lifted the European Cup, Chelsea’s only triumph came in 2011-2012, when the 22-year-old Mount was in the youth system.
“It’s going to be a stunning game,” Mount said.
Unlike last season’s final — when Tuchel’s PSG lost to Bayern Munich — fans are set to be allowed in.
Chelsea supporters have yet to see Tuchel managing their team in the flesh due to England’s ongoing pandemic restrictions, but they cannot deny the impact he has made.
Chelsea were five points outside the four Champions League qualification places when he was hired, but heads into the final four games of the Premier League season in fourth place with a three-point cushion.
There is a chance to pick up a trophy before the trip to Turkey, too, with an FA Cup final against Leicester City on Saturday next week after beating Manchester City in the semi-finals.
Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane is left to focus on trying to wipe out Atletico Madrid’s two-point lead in Spain to win La Liga, rather than adding to the Champions League titles he won from 2016 to 2018.
“I think we tried, but the truth is today Chelsea were superior and we have to congratulate them,” Zidane said. “It was complicated throughout the match, because they had many chances to score more goals and they deserved their victory.”
After conceding a costly away goal last week, Madrid lacked the attacking nous or threat to turn this semi-final around as Chelsea kept an 18th clean sheet in 24 games under Tuchel.
Karim Benzema was denied by the first in a series of fine saves by Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy before Werner’s opener, but the visitors were sluggish, lacking a creative spark from Eden Hazard on an ineffective return to his former home.
Even in a debut season full of misfortune, not even Werner could miss in the 28th minute when presented with an unguarded net to head into from close range after Kai Havertz had lobbed former Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and hit the crossbar.
“I had to wait a long time for the ball coming down — it felt like hours,” Werner said.
The chants of “Timo” from the substitutes’ bench reflected the delight from his teammates that the Germany forward had scored only his fourth goal in 35 games for Chelsea.
However, for all of Chelsea’s threat, Madrid only needed to score once to force the second leg into extra-time.
When the second half opened with Havertz heading against the crossbar and having a low shot saved it looked like the misses could prove costly.
“Keep on pushing guys,” Tuchel urged from the sideline.
And so they did, helped by the arrival of Christian Pulisic from the bench as Werner’s replacement to spark the second goal.
The American headed to N’Golo Kante and received the ball back to feed Mount, who lifted a shot over Courtois and into the net in the 85th minute.
“I have to go on and do my bit, be creative and try to finish the game off strong, and luckily I was able to do that,” Pulisic said.
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
CUNNINGHAM CONNECTS: In the Eastern Conference, the Pistons snapped their record 15-game playoff losing streak by beating the Knicks to level their series at 1-1 Kawhi Leonard on Monday scored 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting as the Los Angeles Clippers evened their first-round NBA Playoffs series against the Nuggets with a 105-102 win in Denver. “It feels like he didn’t miss a shot,” James Harden said. “His shot-making ability is elite.” Good thing, too, because his teammates were a combined 26 of 66 for a 39 percent clip. “I made shots tonight,” Leonard said. “I just keep playing, try to stay in the zone no matter if I’m making or missing shots.” The fifth-seeded Clippers needed every bit of his brilliance to snatch the homecourt advantage in the series
RSS