IN WITH A GREAT SHOUT
Advantage Chelsea as Pulisic rocks Real
CHRISTIAN PULISIC struck a crucial away goal as Chelsea secured a 1-1 draw at Real Madrid in their Champions League semi-final first leg.
The USA winger put the visitors in front on 14 minutes as Thomas Tuchel’s side dominated the early exchanges but they missed a host of good chances, including two by Timo Werner. They were made to pay on the half-hour when Karim Benzema volleyed Real level. el.
Tuchel later ordered £47million illion Werner to forget his latest test horror miss, saying: ‘He missed ssed a big one at West Ham too, o, it does not help, but it also does oes not help to cry about it or to regret it all the time. Millions ns of people have harder things s
to deal with than chances that you miss, so this is the good thing about sports — nobody cares tomorrow. ‘Today we were sad, we were angry in the moment, this is normal. He is angry. He is maybe disappointed. ‘Tomorrow he has a free day and the next day he has to put his chin up. He is a professional guy, a top guy, he works hard. ‘He is in positions and from there, on we go. We will never stop pushing, we will never stop believing and I have the feeling that everybody accepts the situation like it is. As a striker it is easy, you score the next game and nobody speaks about it.’ On his side’s general profligacy, Tuchel added: ‘We played a very strong first half, we should have won the first half. ‘Unfortunately we were a bit unlucky and lacked composure and decision-making in the opponent’s box. ‘Maybe we could have decided this match very, very early in the first half an hour when we were playing so, so strong. ‘Next week we have to face another challenge against Real Madrid, it will be another tough one because it is the Champions League semi-final, nothing is sure. It is half-time and we need to fight for every centimetre and advantage that we want to have, we need to fight and to deserve it. ‘We only had two days in between two away games. Those games were very demanding physically and mentally so you could feel that in the decision-making and some ball losses and acceleration. ‘One more day would have been great for us. Now is the challenge to enjoy a free day then forget this result. ‘We suffered physically. We defend together as a team. The strikers have their job. We defend as a block as 11 people. ‘I don’t feel that we are pointing fingers. The strikers are the first guys who want to score and be decisive and to do it for themselves.’ Former Chelsea favourite Eden Hazard came on for Real late on and he told BT Sport: ‘We have to go there to try to win the game. It’s always good to play against friends — I have a couple over there — but now I’m a Real Madrid player, I just want to win.’ On his troubling fitness, the Belgian added: ‘I just want to go step by step. I feel better, happy I can play again.’