Chelsea had no answer to Benzema’s brilliance as Real Madrid gets close to Semis!

Karim Benzema – The genius on the pitch has once again done something that no one thought was possible. Chelsea, the European Champions were stunned at their home turf as the men in white ran havoc at Stamford Bridge. After a brilliant hat-trick in the second leg against Paris Saint Germain, the French has done something similar and gave a massive lead to Real Madrid ahead of the second leg at the Bernabeu.

Chelsea were expected to control the match as Real Madrid keep themselves reserve in the away legs. The way it was in Paris against Neymar and company. However, Carlo Ancelotti changed everything and the brand of football the team was playing was not just effective but beautiful to even look at. The master stroke that the Italian manager made was to play Valverde ahead of Rodrygo or Asensio. Valverde is like a machine and can run for 90 minutes without any hesitation and that helped Real Madrid massively. His defensive skills are as good as his attacking skills and that helped Madrid take control of the match. The left side of Chelsea was in his pocket and that is exactly how Madrid restricted Chelsea.

The first goal was a result of quick counter attacking play and then Vinicius placing a brilliant bowl to Benzema for the header in the 21^st minute. Before Chelsea could react, Benzema made it 2-0 for the Madrid-based club. The French forward deserves a lot of appreciation for this goal as he kept the ball in the first post when everyone thought he’s going to head in the other way. Mendy had no chance whatsoever to stop that as Real Madrid was all over Chelsea at that point.

Chelsea pulled one back just before the half-time as Kai Havertz scored a very important goal to bring Chelsea back into the game. Things however changed after the break. A miss-communication between goalkeeper Mendy and Antonio Rudiger helped Benzema get his third. The goalpost was wide open in front of him as Karim completed his hat-trick.

Chelsea made some changes and gave their best couldn’t break Real Madrid’s defence. Even after having some difficulties throughout the match, Militao continued to play but was replaced by Nacho in the 64^th minute. The Brazilian centre-back will miss the second leg after he was shown yellow in the first half of the match.

Real Madrid beating Chelsea 3-1 is very much digestible but Villarreal caused the upset in another great night of Champions League football. Arnaut Danjuma’s strike in the 8^th minute gave Villarreal the lead against the mighty Bayern Munich and Unai Emery was ready for any kind of challenge that the German Champions were throwing. Things might change when the two teams face at Allianz Arena but credit goes to the Spanish team to look in the eyes and beat Bayern Munich, the 2020 Champions League winner!