DREAM TIMO
Werner and Mount set up final showdown with Manchester City
TRIUMPHANT Chelsea booked their place in an all-English Champions League final against Manchester City.
Timo Werner’s 12th goal of the season at Stamford Bridge put them on the road – and Mason Mount’s close-range finish with five minutes left sealed a deserved victory.
Thomas Tuchel’s side dominated a one-sided semifinal – and should have won by more. The final in Istanbul on May 29 will be Chelsea’s third.
NO WONDER Thomas Tuchel looked like all his Christmases had come at once.
He didn’t really get one this year – he was too busy being sacked by PSG.
Now he is in the Champions League final while his Scroogelike former bosses watch on from the sofa.
And who is to say he cannot gift-wrap the Champions League for his new club by beating probably the best team in the world?
Over the past 180 minutes his team have seen off the greatest, biggest and most famous. And this time all those Galacticos were out there.
Ahead of this return match, Zinedine Zidane had been coy about discussing his injured players. He was much more bold about playing them.
A team-sheet listing both Sergio Ramos and Eden Hazard in the starting line-up suddenly felt more like the Real Madrid we have come to expect, rather than the Fake Madrid who failed to turn up last week for the first leg. Chelsea’s big concern was that they did not make more of their dominance in Spain – certainly it became clear they were not going to see as much of the ball this time as Madrid settled into their usual rhythm.
Toni Kroos and Luka Modric had early sighters from range, easily saved by Edouard Mendy, as the Spanish giants tested the thickness of those remarkable 17 clean sheets Tuchel had collected in his first 23 games in charge.
As has been their strength in the latter half of the season,
Chelsea soon began to find little routes in and around the Madrid defence and Timo Werner put the ball in the back of the net from Ben Chilwell’s cross after 18 minutes.
He was clearly at least a yard offside, but perhaps that would be all the confidence he needed after failing to find the target so hideously in recent matches? You betcha!
Kai Havertz’s clever chip after he had been played in by N’Golo Kante after 28 minutes looped agonisingly back off the bar.
Wait a minute, though, there was Werner, unmarked a yard out, in the perfect place to nod the ball over the line.
He was not going to miss that one for all the mountains in North Macedonia. Not surprisingly, Karim Benzema was looking dangerous at the other end from all angles.
He had tested Mendy’s reach already with a shot angled toward the far post. Next the Chelsea goalkeeper had to show his agility as he tipped a header over the bar after Modric had supplied the delivery.
The difference now was that Chelsea had a safety net. One slip-up would mean extra-time, not exit, and there was always the chance of catching Real on the break.
Less than two minutes after the restart, for example, Havertz rose to head Cesar Azpilicueta’s cross against the bar.
Mason Mount should have wrapped the tie up five minutes later, bursting through only to shoot uncharacteristically wildly over. Then Havertz was clear through with Werner beside him but failed to squeeze the ball past Courtois.
Would Chelsea end up ruing these missed chances?
Hazard, a shadow of the matchwinner he had been at Chelsea for many years, suddenly turned the clock back with a near-post shot that was well saved – and that still did not spur the Blues to tie this up, Kante failing to beat Courtois.
Clearly it was going to be nervy to the end. Ultimately, though, the man of the match was to prove the key player in Chelsea’s long-awaited second goal.
Nacho ball? Not your ball more like when Kante is lurking. He found Christian Pulisic on the overlap and this time Mount was there to finish.