Real Madrid have beaten Chelsea 2-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal to brighten their chances of advancing to the semifinals of the competition.
Chelsea would have taken the lead as early as the second minute had Joao Felix converted his chance that was cleverly set up by N’Golo Kante. After that missed chance, Real Madrid settled into the match and started creating chances for themselves and problems for Chelsea’s defence and finally got the breakthrough through captain Karim Benzema.
Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga saved the initial shot by Vinicius Jr but the ball fell on the in-form Frenchman and he made no mistake but to tap it home from close range to give Real Madrid the lead in the 21st minute.
The next 15 minutes saw both teams creating chances and missing them at the same time with Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo failing to double Los Blancos’ advantage and Raheem Sterling failing to level matters for Chelsea.
Halftime ended with Real Madrid in the lead and Chelsea came back with more effort to get the equaliser. However, they were dealt a blow defensively when Ben Chilwell was sent off in the 59th minute for bringing down Rodrygo on the edge of the box, but the resulting free kick taken by David Alaba was saved by Kepa.
Outnumbered, Frank Lampard sacrificed Felix and introduced Trevoh Chalobah to reinforce his defence in the 65th minute but this reinforcement only lasted nine minutes and Marco Asensio doubled Real Madrid’s lead with a fine finish just three minutes after coming on. Talk about instant impact!
In the remaining 16 minutes, Chelsea tried to launch attacks into Real Madrid’s box but none of them were fruitful as the match ended with Real Madrid keeping a clean sheet.
This is Frank Lampard’s second successive defeat since taking over as caretaker manager a week ago.
