Politics
‘That’s what it’s like when you play Real Madrid’ – Chelsea boss Tuchel fumes over handball decision against Alonso
THOMAS TUCHEL has fumed over the decision to disallow Marcos Alonso’s second half strike for handball, denying his side a place in the semi-finals of the Champions League.
The defending European champions headed into the second leg against Real Madrid hoping to overturn a two-goal deficit.
The ball did strike Alonso on the hand but he couldn’t have done much more to get it out of the way
The Spaniard fired his effort into the top cornerGETTY
Tuchel has blasted the referee for not conducting an on-field review of Alonso’s disallowed goalGETTY
And all was going well with goals by Mason Mount and Antonio Rudiger drawing Chelsea level 3-3 on aggregate.
Alonso then added a third to seemingly swing the nail-biting tie in Chelsea’s favour.
But after a lengthy VAR check, the Spaniard was deemed to have handled the ball in the build-up.
The decision didn’t look like it would come back to haunt Chelsea as Timo Werner added a third.
READ MORE SPORT STORIES
However, disaster struck with ten minutes to go as a Rodrygo goal forced the game into extra-time.
Benzema then added another in extra-time to win the tie 5-4 on aggregate.
Tuchel, whose team won 3-2 on the night, proclaimed “that’s what happens when you play Real Madrid”, publicly expressing his displeasure at the referee not doing an on-pitch review of Alonso’s disallowed strike.
The German said: “I’m very disappointed the referee didn’t go and check it himself.
Most read in Football
FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS – BEST NEW CUSTOMER OFFERS
“That’s what it’s like when you play Real Madrid in the Champions League.”
Defender Rudiger says Real made Chelsea pay for their mistakes.
The German said: “The positive is that we didn’t give up and not many teams can come here and dominate them as we did.
“But over the two legs, if you make the type of mistakes that we do, you get punished.”
Real will go on to play either Manchester City or city rivals Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals.
They could meet either Villarreal, or the winners of Liverpool vs Benfica in May’s final.