Karim Benzema scored to cancel Christian Pulisic’s early strike for Real Madrid against Chelsea when the two faced in the first leg semi finals of the UEFA Champions League.
Both sides impressed on a night that had great individual performances from Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante to Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema.
Here are the 5 takeaways from the crunch game.
Kante is gold
N’Golo Kante proved his worth for Chelsea in an elite European competition against arguably the best midfield trio in the last 10 years.
According to Squawkwa, Kante completed more take-ons (6) than any other player and contested more duels (21) than any other player on the field.
He ended up being named as the Man of the Match for the game.
Benzema, Real Madrid’s main man
Benzema took his seasonal UCL tally to 6 goals with that important goal against Chelsea FC.
Since the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale, Benzema has been the main man upfront for Real Madrid and has pulled the likes of Vinícius and Asensio along with his experience.
Timo Werner cost Chelsea
The German attacker had an opportunity to put Chelsea ahead with just a tap in but missed it.
Werner has been a pale shadow of himself since joining Chelsea and has missed the most big chances (21) in Europe this season.
If he had scored, the narrative would have been different in the second leg.
Tuchel still unbeaten against Spanish clubs
Thomas Tuchel might not be the favourite of most football fanatics but the German always finds a way to do it against the top Spanish sides including Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.
Gradually, he is pricing to be a top manager.
Vital away goal for Chelsea
Chelsea were solid in all departments against Real Madrid – the midfield looked organized and the attack was okay.
That Christian Pulisic goal is vital and could be the deciding factor in the second leg for Chelsea FC.
Source: 3news.com|Ghana
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