Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel insists he has “no regrets” after his side’s dramatic UEFA Champions League quarter-final exit to Real Madrid on Tuesday.
The Blues outscored Madrid 3-1 in the first leg last week with goals from Mason Mount, Antonio Rudiger, and Timo Werner, however, Rodrygo’s volley forced a tie in extra time.
Karim Benzema had one last word, coming home six minutes into extra time to win 5-4 overall.
Chelsea became the second English team to score three goals against Los Blancos in all European competitions, after Manchester United did so in a 3-3 draw in the European Cup in May 1968.
That is not enough to help participants in the last four, and although Tuchel was proud of her players’ efforts, she lamented their inability to cut errors on both legs.
“We were unlucky,” he told a news conference. “That’s why we are disappointed. We were defeated by individual-level and conversion. We made two mistakes, two balls were lost. We had to pass after this game today. It was not intended to be so.
“We have to reduce the number of our mistakes and we have not been able to reduce them to very small on both legs. We have lost two important balls.
“There is no regret. This is the kind of defeat that you can proudly take as a player.
“The players lived by the system in a very different way that we played against Brentford in the first leg.
“We were very active in the ballpark and we were active and we invested outside of the ball. We showed courage and from there we showed our level. This is the right way to do it. If we have this kind of effort, we are a special team.”
Marcos Alonso saw the VAR effort put in by the VAR just before Werner’s third, and Tuchel was disappointed that referee Szymon Marciniak did not watch the incident on the sidelines before the strike was called off.
Asked if the decisions were against his team, Tuchel said: “Not just today. When you play for Real Madrid, you probably don’t expect everyone to be brave.
“I felt small decisions in the first leg and today. I did not see the goal but I am very disappointed that he did not go out and test himself. You have to be a manager and not give decisions.
Chelsea will follow suit on Sunday when they face Crystal Palace in the FA Cup semi-final.
