Tuchel slams lacklustre Chelsea display as 'one of the worst'
Thomas Tuchel criticized Chelsea’s first-half performance in the loss to Real Madrid, describing it as “one of the worst” he had seen at Stamford Bridge.
The current Champions League holders have work to do in the quarter-final second leg after losing 3-1 to a Karim Benzema-inspired Real Madrid.
Benzema’s hat-trick was crucial as former Blues manager Carlo Ancelotti, who only traveled to London on Wednesday after returning a negative COVID-19 test, made a victorious return to the bridge.
The France international gave Los Blancos control with two first-half headers – in which the Blues won just 14 of their 36 duels – while capitalizing on Edouard Mendy’s error completing his hat-trick shortly after the restart.
It resulted in back-to-back home defeats for Tuchel’s side, who were also beaten 4-1 by Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday.
2 – Chelsea suffered back-to-back home defeats for only the second time under Thomas Tuchel, also in April last year. The Blues, however, have scored more than 3 goals in consecutive games at Stamford Bridge for the first time since October 2012. Collapse.
Next up for the Blues is a trip to Southampton next weekend ahead of the return leg at the Santiago Bernabéu on Tuesday.
The German hasn’t held back in the performance review and fears the consequences if his players don’t level up.
He told BT Sport: “It’s a heavy loss. It was one of the worst first times I’ve seen here at Stamford Bridge. Individually and as a team, it was by far not enough.
“[The] first half was so close to all the standards we set that we can’t complain when we lose.
“We had 12 shots in the second half. You can always come back and win, but when you kill the game on your own after 45 minutes it gets harder and harder.
“If we keep playing like this, we will lose at Southampton and get hammered at the [Santiago] Bernabeu.”
