Thomas Tuchel was incredibly proud of his Chelsea players after their heroic Champions League exit in Madrid but not so pleased with Polish referee Szymon Marciniak at the final whistle.
Chelsea’s reign as European champions came to an agonising end despite beating Real Madrid on a night of high drama at a rocking Bernabeu Stadium.
In a Champions League epic, and arguably the game of the season so far, Mason Mount’s wonderful finish and Antonio Rudiger’s powerful header wiped out Real’s 3-1 first-leg advantage and brought the quarter-final tie level.
Tuchel’s side were outstanding throughout and Timo Werner’s deflected finish put them ahead for the first time on aggregate and within sight of a place in the last four.
But substitute Rodrygo forced extra-time with a volleyed finish before Karim Benzema, hat-trick hero in the first leg at Stamford Bridge six days ago, headed the decisive goal in the 96th minute to send Real through 5-4 on aggregate.
And speaking at his press conference after the game, Chelsea boss Tuchel said: “We were unlucky. That is why we are disappointed. We got beaten by individual quality and conversion. We made two mistakes, two ball losses.
“We deserved to go through after this match today. It was not meant to be.
Mistakes proved costly
“We have to reduce our amount of mistakes and we could not reduce them to a minimum over the two legs. We had two crucial ball losses.
“There are no regrets. These are the kind of defeat you can…