Chelsea faced off against Real Madrid at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano earlier tonight as they looked to pick up a positive result in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League semifinal tie. The Blues made an excellent start to the contest as they got themselves ahead in the 14th minute courtesy of a composed finish from Christian Pulisic. However, Karim Benzema scored a wonderful goal in the 29th minute which made the scoreline level. Both sides went into the half-time break with nothing to split them.
Thomas Tuchel’s men were solid in the second 45 minutes and managed to grind out a hard-fought 1-1 draw at the Spanish capital. Both teams will now have everything to play for in the second leg at Stamford Bridge next month.
Let’s take a look at how each Chelsea player performed during the match against Los Blancos.
GK: Edouard Mendy – 6/10
The Senegalese keeper couldn’t do much about Benzema’s world-class finish. Otherwise, he was mostly untroubled during the 90 minutes and was tidy with his ball distribution.
CB: Andreas Christensen – 6.5/10
He won the ball back quite a few times during the game and cleared the danger when required.
CB: Thiago Silva – 6/10
The Brazilian defensive ace used his experience when needed and kept things solid at the back.
CB: Antonio Rudiger – 7.5/10
The German centre-back didn’t do much wrong in the game when defending inside his half. He also created a couple of decent chances and picked up a great assist for setting up Pulisic’s opening goal.
RM: Cesar Azpilicueta – 6.5/10
The Spanish talent sensed the danger quickly and gave a good account of himself in defence. However, he offered very little going forward and got substituted in the second half.
CM: N’Golo Kante – 7/10
Kante was full of energy in midfield and made multiple runs with the ball which made life difficult for the home team.
CM: Jorginho – 7/10
The Italian midfield ace made a couple of important interceptions and kept possession ticking for his side.
CM: Mason Mount – 6.5/10
Mount tracked back to help his teammates on the defensive end of the field. However, he struggled to influence the game in the attacking third.
LM: Ben Chilwell – 6.5/10
Chilwell dealt with the danger when called into action and engineered a couple of meaningful openings in the Real Madrid half.
ST: Christian Pulisic – 8.5/10
He was always willing to take on the opposition and was quite direct with his running. Pulisic deserves to be named the man of the match as he opened the goal-scoring in the 14th minute and also managed to set up some decent chances for his teammates to find the back of the net.
ST: Timo Werner – 6.5/10
Werner was not shy of having a shot at goal but lacked the cutting edge up top as usual.
Substitutes:
ST: Kai Havertz – 6/10
He hardly got into the flow of the game.
ST: Hakim Ziyech – 6/10
Ziyech tested Thibaut Courtois with a decent freekick but never looked like he had a goal in him.
RM: Reece James – 6/10
James added some energy out on the wide areas.
