Champions League is ‘anyone’s to win’ – Tuchel
Thomas Tuchel heaped pressure on Chelsea’s Champions League rivals by insisting it was “anyone’s competition” after the unburdened Blues reached the semi-finals on Tuesday night.
Chelsea lost 1-0 to Porto in Seville on Tuesday night but progressed 2-1 on aggregate, with Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell’s first-leg goals proving decisive.
Tuchel insisted an unshackled Chelsea can now enjoy their “big adventure” in Europe, having reached a first Champions League semi-final since 2014. His assert ions both take a load off his young Blues, while also hinting that their big-gun rivals should feel the weight of expectation, experience and history.
“We’re in the competition and in the semi-final it is anyone’s competition,” the German said.
“Inthesemi-final,youneed players fit, you need momentum and you need luck in the games. When you look on the scoresheet last week, you saw two players who scored their first goals in the competition (Mount and Chilwell).
“When you look at Kylian Mbappe, Neymar, Karim Benzema or Mo Salah score, it is their 50th or 100th goal or something. We have arrived with a very young team. We want a young team to turn it around.
“What a young team can do is run, fight and hang in there. It is a very big achievement. You see when Chelsea was last in the semi-final.
“We are not used to being there. Once you are there, you play for the final; this is clear. We take every minute to learn and grow. You cannot improve without these experiences so we are doing it now, while we are playing it. Yes, it is nice beingon the side line because you see all the effort.”