Real Madrid Knocked Out Chelsea in the Champions League Quarter-finals

Despite Chelsea's second-leg victory over Los Blancos, the former's 3-2 win couldn't erase the lead established by Real Madrid owing to striker Karim Benzema's three-goal showdown in their first leg. Let's take a quick look at what went down in this nail-biting football extravaganza!

Chelsea Exhibited Strong Control but Let Down Guard in the Final Minutes

Thomas Tuchel's side quickly took over the game with balanced attack-defense gameplay and in the 15th minute, Mason Mount scored the first goal of the match. They doubled their lead in the 51st minute when Antonio Rudiger dropped an impressive header past Thibaut Courtois.

Real Madrid visibly struggled as the score margin further widened. They were 3-0 down as Timo Werner's ball underwent a slight deflection off Courtois. Rodrygo was called to replace Casemiro in the 78th minute and the Brazilian forward managed to score two minutes later. Luka Modric found set him up with a crafty hit with the outside of his foot and Rodrygo kicked it past Edouard Mendy, who nevertheless made crucial saves throughout the match.

As the score leveled to 4-4 on aggregate, the game was extended for 30 minutes. The hosts sent one more ball into the back of the net in the 96th minute due to one last effort made by Karim Benzema. It was his fourth goal of the tie that pushed his side into the last four.

Modric Called the Game 'Unbelievable'

In a statement made to BT Sport, Real Madrid's Luka Modric said, 'Unbelievable to describe this game. We were dead until the goal we scored. Chelsea scored three goals, maybe the first a bit lucky from a deflection. I can't say we played badly. They used their chances well and scored the goals. We didn't give up. We kept believing, fighting, and in the end showed huge character. This stadium and the fans were very helpful when we were losing 3-0."

Modric continued, 'The manager did great changes. They did well. In this competition, experience is playing an important role and I think today it helped us a bit. For me, they are the most difficult team to play against. They are a tough, physical team. We knew it would be tough. In the end, we showed great character, desire, and togetherness to manage to turn it around. A defeat that is very sweet.'

Tuchel believes that His Team Deserved to Pull Through

While Modric uttered celebratory remarks, Thomas Tuchel expressed his sentiments after the loss, “These are the kind of defeats we can digest and swallow because we left nothing to regret out there. We played what we wanted to play and showed the quality and character the team has. We deserved to go through but it was not meant to be, we were simply unlucky. The full credit is for the players."

“We had a huge deficit to overcome. Unfortunately both of their goals today came from mistakes in the build-up. They took advantage of the mistakes with individual quality and over the two legs, we did too many of these big mistakes.” About Alonso's disallowed goal, he stated that he was "disappointed for the referee that he did not check.. but that’s what you get when you play Real Madrid in the Champions League."  The 13-time winners will now encounter Manchester City or Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals.