Real Madrid’s Rodrygo celebrates scoring the staff’s second purpose in opposition to Chelsea through the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals on April 18, 2023
| Photo Credit: Action Images through Reuters
Holders Real Madrid breezed past Chelsea into the semi-finals of the Champions League with Rodrygo’s double securing a 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday to arrange a probable mouth-watering conflict with Manchester City.
Chelsea’s hopes of sustaining curiosity in a woeful season at all times seemed slender after dropping final week within the Bernabeu and Rodrygo put them out of their distress with two second-half objectives to substantiate Real’s superiority with a 4-0 mixture win.
The hosts had 19 purpose makes an attempt however as soon as once more they lacked any leading edge as they misplaced a fourth match in succession in all competitions for the reason that membership’s report scorer Frank Lampard returned as interim supervisor.
N’Golo Kante spurned two possibilities to chop the deficit and Real’s former Chelsea keeper Thibaut Courtois made an important save simply earlier than halftime to frustrate his previous membership who’ve now managed just one purpose of their final six video games.
Real, bidding for a record-extending fifteenth European crown, bided their time and Rodrygo opened the scoring within the 58th minute, earlier than tapping in once more within the eightieth to spark a mass exodus of Chelsea followers who had seen sufficient.
First time since 1993
Despite spending round 600 million kilos ($745 million) on gamers since a Todd Boehly-led takeover, the London membership have now misplaced 4 video games in a row for the primary time since 1993.
For Real, they could be handing the La Liga title to arch-rivals Barcelona, however stay the staff to beat in Europe’s elite competitors and supervisor Carlo Ancelotti is now eyeing a 3rd Champions League crown with them and fifth in all.
Manchester City lead Bayern Munich 3-0 heading in to their quarter-final second leg on Wednesday.
Chelsea’s followers cranked up the quantity extra in hope than expectation from the kickoff and the hosts virtually bought the proper begin when Reece James, Chelsea’s most harmful participant, crossed low and the ball broke kindly for Kante who held his head in his fingers after bouncing a volley vast.
Real seemed able to killing the tie at any time when they moved ahead and Rodrygo, who scored a significant purpose in opposition to Chelsea on the identical stage final 12 months, smashed a shot in opposition to the publish.
Home keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga then beat away a Vinicius Junior effort earlier than Real’s grasp craftsman Luka Modric pressured one other save from Arrizabalaga.
Important save
A Chelsea purpose earlier than halftime would have energised the temper and it virtually arrived in stoppage time when James fizzed a ball throughout the world and Marc Cucurella seemed poised to attain just for Courtois to smother his effort brilliantly.
“The big Courtois save was very important. We didn’t want them to go ahead,” Ancelotti advised reporters. “That could have been worrying. As the second half developed, we were stronger, we created space to open up quality transitions.
“By the tip, we had produced a really full efficiency. We hit an excellent stage.”
Shortly after halftime Kante’s deflected effort went agonisingly wide and then Madrid defender Eder Militao was a tad fortunate not to receive a second yellow card for a clumsy foul on Trevoh Chalobah.
“It was a second yellow card, which suggests a pink, which suggests half-hour with us a person up,” Lampard said.
Real then switched gears and Rodrygo skipped past Chalobah’s wild slide on the right and his cross was eventually played back to him by fellow Brazilian Vinicius Jr to calmly slot home.
Real’s fans wedged in the corner were already serenading their team by the time Chelsea were picked off again and Federico Valverde teed up Rodrygo to apply the knockout blow.
It could have got ugly for Chelsea and Lampard who now faces a huge task injecting some life into a season that is fast becoming an embarrassment for the big spenders.
Giroud sends Milan into semis regardless of late Napoli rally
AC Milan reached the Champions League semi-finals for the primary time since they gained the trophy 16 years in the past because of a first-half purpose from Olivier Giroud at Napoli that secured a 1-1 draw and 2-1 mixture win regardless of a barrage of stress on Tuesday.
Napoli battled till the tip however couldn’t break down the resilient Milan defence till striker Victor Osimhen equalised three minutes into stoppage time with a bullet header however it was too late because the referee ended the match seconds later.
Seven-time European champions Milan will now face both Inter Milan or Benfica, who meet on Wednesday on the San Siro with the Italian facet main 2-0 from the primary leg.
This was the third assembly between Milan and Napoli in 16 days, with Stefano Pioli’s visiting facet having claimed a 4-0 victory in opposition to the runaway Serie A leaders on April 2.
