Carlo Ancelotti believes his Real Madrid side faced a very strong opponent in Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea suffered a 2-0 defeat on Tuesday night against Real Madrid, losing the quarter-final tie 4-0 on aggregate over two legs.
Frank Lampard’s side were always up against it this evening due to the two-goal deficit, but they played in front of a superb Blues crowd at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea, like so much of this season, were unable to capitalise on a few golden goalscoring opportunities. In particular, N’Golo Kante and Marc Cucurella both failed to take golden chances during the first-half.
Madrid attacker Rodrygo scored two second-half goals for the Spanish giants. It means they are through to yet another European semi-final, where they will face Manchester City or Bayern Munich.
As for Chelsea, they’ve got just seven Premier League games remaining in the 2022/23 season. It’s definitely been a campaign to forget!
Madrid boss Ancelotti was extremely complimentary of Chelsea’s display tonight against his side:
“Difficult game and difficult qualification because Chelsea is still a really good team. They tried everything. They played well, in my opinion. We suffered in the first-half. The second-half was much better,” Ancelotti told beIN SPORTS.
Chelsea now have a small break before they host Brentford in eight days time.
Lampard needs to somehow keep this oversized squad motivated for the final section of the season.
The best place to start would be to try end this four-game losing streak when they play Brentford, but fans won’t be confident going into any game right now.
There were some positives in the way Chelsea tried to attack Madrid, who definitely had more gears to go through if needed. Let’s hope we can see some individual pride from players in the games ahead.
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