Whilst not quite the dominance seen from the brilliant Manchester City last Tuesday, Real Madrid performed comfortably as European champions in a commanding 2-0 win over Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League (CL) quarterfinal.
Goals from Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio put Los Blancos into a truly dominant position in the tie, even with the return leg to come at Stamford Bridge in a week.
Frank Lampard spoke of his feelings of good fortune to be in place to coach Chelsea at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, but he may now be ruing his words as his term were soundly beaten.
It wasn’t as convincing as it could have been with Los Merengues electing to control the match, keeping their opponents at arms’ length. You got the feeling that when the Spanish champions wanted to score… they did.
Vinicius Jr and Karim Benzema is the perfect one-two punch. Much has been made of the relationship between Vinicius Jr and Karim Benzema, and if such a thing as ‘tough love’ still exists in modern society then their pairing is the perfect example of the positive side of it.
There was once an instance where Benzema was encouraging teammates not to pass the ball to the Brazilian, yet now they are the best one-two punch in European football.
The duo combined so fluidly together that Chelsea’s defense could barely cope.
Wesley Fofana was booked early on after they bamboozled him, and he was walking a disciplinary tightrope from then on.
Benzema scored the opening goal after 22 minutes, with Kepa Arrizabalaga tamely parrying Vinicius Jr’s shot strike to the Frenchman, the Spanish MARCA newspaper reported.
He duly added a tap-in from close-range and Real Madrid were on their way.
Of course, Chelsea have dangerous players and they could have drawn level from the restart.
A clever cross from Reece James found Raheem Sterling inside the penalty area, and his effort skewed off Eder Militao, forcing a world-class save from Thibaut Courtois.
Real Madrid kept their foot off the gas until the second-half, and Ben Chilwell’s red-card made Chelsea’s task more challenging.
A quickly taken free-kick set Rodrygo Goes free over the top and the former Leicester City defender dragged the Brazilian down needlessly when he was one-on-one with the Chelsea keeper.
A clever corner-kick routine saw Vinicius Jr able to pass the ball to Marco Asensio on the edge of the penalty area, and the Spaniard coolly side-footed the ball beyond Kepa.
At 2-0 the tie isn’t dead and buried for Real Madrid, but they will feel they’re in a comfortable position after a comfortable evening’s work.
Source: Oman News Agency