Benzema and Asensio set Real Madrid on the road to Champions League semi-finals
In the 89th minute Real Madrid were insistently asking for the ball from the ball boys in order to get the ball out quickly. The score was 2-0 and everything was set for the second leg, but the Whites wanted more, to close the tie, to go to London almost as tourists and to avoid any more stress on their legs.
Chelsea left the Bernabéu with 17 games lost to 16 won this season. Millionaire spending and new ownership are not making the ownership of the reeking Abramovich any better as he watches his former team dissolve with mixed decisions and three coaches so far this season.
Real Madrid put on the Champions League suit, already a dinner jacket with which it plays a football adapted to that competition with which it has had an idyll for years. Kroos and Modric, the Bernabéu's ovation for Valverde to let him know that before that affront... who knows... and up top Rodrygo, Benzema and Vinicius at the highest competitive level in the middle of April because "I train in the morning with Pintus and in the afternoon at home so that when the others go down, I go up", said the Brazilian 11 to explain his form.
Chelsea had remnants of what they were last season. A quality opening few minutes where they held off Real Madrid's high pressing and got the back of Militao on several occasions. The Brazilian plays on a motorbike and it is impossible to beat him for pace.
Sterling was smiling when his shot was on target before Courtois' providential hand appeared. It was Lampard's team's disconnection before they witnessed the white display in their area.
A ball floated in by Carvajal set up Vinicius to set up Benzema for the first of the night. The transitions were quick, the ball barely passed a few seconds to each player and the unmarked moves were agile. The form of the Whites is better than that of many teams and if the concentration is total, the path to 15th place is clear.
Ancelotti can smell a complicated summer if he does not win the Champions League, even with the Copa del Rey on 6 May at La Cartuja. The Brazil call-up and those rumours that he might leave reminded him at a press conference that he manages world-class players, but he also knows something about tactics.
Perhaps that is what he was referring to when Carvajal played inside instead of on the wing to unsettle Chelsea's three-centre defence. The coach himself said after the game that the Madrid full-back had completed another high-level game in brilliant fashion.
Indeed, Asensio's introduction came at an opportune moment when Los Blancos had to play with ten men due to Chilwell's dismissal and paid for Cucurella's mistake with a forced foul on Rodrygo as he faced Kepa's goal.
The Spaniard claimed the ball from a corner as the England defence settled with parsimony, his left foot did the rest and the 2-0 scoreline, along with Ancelotti's words, should earn him a permanent renewal.
The third goal did not come, although Real Madrid played the last few minutes with the same intensity as a year ago, but with the score in their favour and without causing heart attacks in the stands. It was not to be and it remains for Stamford Bridge to seal a place in the semi-finals, where Guardiola's Manchester City could be waiting to replay the same tie of 2022.