Chelsea’s Champions League reign was supposed to end at the Bernabéu in Madrid Tuesday night, at least if Thomas Tuchel’s pre-match prognostications were to be taken at face value. So in one sense, he got what he expected. It’s unlikely the manager saw the exit unfolding quite like it did, though, an ouster despite victory over 120 minutes.
Chelsea, trailing 3–1 in the Champions League quarterfinals after the first leg, played superbly away to Real Madrid, at one point even had the aggregate lead and goes down in the books as a 3–2 second-leg winner. But on a night of collapses and comebacks in the Spanish capital, Real Madrid, as it is known to do on the European stage, found the necessary resolve and the necessary goals just when it needed them.