Former Blue Pat Nevin was in absolute disbelief in N’Golo Kante’s “superhuman” performance in the 1-1 Champions League semi-final first-leg draw with Real Madrid on Tuesday.
There were a lot of good performances among Chelsea players from in the game, but it was pretty clear who was the busiest.
It was an outstanding box-to-box display from Kante who, as usual, was everywhere on the pitch.
The France international clearly left Nevin in awe with his tireless performance.
“It’s unnatural,” the former Blues winger told Chelsea’s post-match Matchday Live about Kante’s performance.
“I mean, I do question whether he’s human or not sometimes — because he does so many things that are superhuman.
“He dribbled through three players [in the second half]. It was Eden Hazard’s standard, that’s what it was.
“He’s Eden Hazard’s standard [in dribbling], Makelele’s [in] tackling, and he’s got the energy level of Mo Farah.
“He’s just weird, man.”
Chronicle view
Credit to Jorginho, Kante, and Mason Mount, who often dropped deeper to help, Chelsea arguably won the midfield battle against Real Madrid’s renowned midfield trio; Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, and Casemiro.
Bear in mind that Jorginho and Mount have started in seven consecutive games since the first-leg win over Porto, while Kante started in four of the last five games.
Hopefully, Mateo Kovacic will return soon and hopefully be available for the weekend’s game against Fulham, or at least the second-leg against Real Madrid next week.
As Nevin pointed out, Kante is superhuman, but Thomas Tuchel will still have to be very cautious about his workload considering his recent injury record.
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