Thomas Tuchel says the Chelsea-Real Madrid tie is barely alive after the first leg

Thomas Tuchel appeared to write off Chelsea‘s hopes of retaining their European title last night following a crushing 3-1 loss to Real Madrid.

Karim Benzema‘s hat-trick has provided the Spanish giants with a resounding advantage heading into next week’s second leg in Madrid.

And when asked whether the tie was still alive Tuchel, who lead the club to Champions League glory last season, replied: ‘No, the tie is not alive at the moment. 

Thomas Tuchel could not hide his frustration at various areas of Chelsea’s play against Madrid

‘We have to find our level back because since international break. I worry more about the Southampton game this weekend.’ 

‘You cannot expect a result from this kind of performance. We need three goals and how often did this happen? Let’s be honest.

‘We are competitive and need to find our competitive spirit and then we can talk. It is a heavy loss. 

The German said that the first half was one of the worst he had seen from his side at home

‘It was one of the worst first halves that I saw from us here at Stamford Bridge. Individually and as a team it was by far not enough. 

‘It was far from our standards and then you lose games.’ 

Tuchel also pinned the part of the blame of last night’s loss on his team’s jam-packed schedule, saying: ‘I was a bit shocked when I saw the amount of games we play in 2022, I saw it in last days – we are the team with Liverpool to play more than any team in England and Europe. 

‘It is a bit worrying and the schedule is not our friend in this season. We struggle from it.’

Romelu Lukaku, who started the game on the bench, missed a glorious chance to cut the deficit to 3-2 shortly after coming on and Tuchel couldn’t hide his disappointment saying: ‘You saw the momentum was back and we had the chance but the individual decisions today even at 2-1 was far from our level and far from our standards.’

‘Goals are crucial, we get them, we gave a third one away and this is simply impossible,’ he added.

Romelu Lukaku missed a big chance for the blues at 3-1 which Thomas Tuchel was angry at

‘We cannot demand from ourselves to turn things around if this is our focus going into the game.’ 

Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti heaped praise on his veteran striker Benzema, adding: ‘We played well and had good control of the game, good build up from the back, dangerous counter-attack.

‘It was a good night but it is only the first half of this round.’

‘It was really good. We showed good organisation defensively. We had a fantastic performance up front from Benzema. A good performance.

‘We have an advantage. We have to prepare for the next game in the league and then Tuesday will be another game. 

‘We have a lot of respect for this team who were the winners of the last Champions League.’