Player Ratings: Real Madrid 1-1 Chelsea
Karim Benzema’s first half equaliser salvages a draw for Real Madrid after Christian Pulisic had given Chelsea the lead.
Chelsea started off the game brilliantly and came close to opening the scoring on a number of occasions but Courtois was on hand to deny the London club. Chelsea’s dominance didn’t go without reward as Christian Pulisic opened the scoring after 14 minutes rounding Thibaut Courtois and finishing with aplomb.
Real Madrid didn’t take long to respond, with Karim Benzema levelling the scoring with a brilliant finish into the roof of Chelsea’s net. The result gives Chelsea control of the tie heading into next week’s second-leg at Stamford Bridge. These are our player ratings:
Starting XI:
Thibaut Courtois: 8/10
Madrid have Courtois to thank for still being in this tie. The Belgian made a couple of great saves with the highlight being the save he made to deny Timo Werner what looked like a clear goal. The Belgian couldn’t do much to stop Pulisic from scoring.
Dani Carvajal: 7/10
Far from his best. Carvajal has only just returned from a long spell on the sidelines and it was evident from his performance tonight. The right-back was replaced by Odriozola for the final 15 minutes.
Eder Militao: 9/10
Yet another fantastic performance. The Brazilian was calm and composed when his teammates looked to be all over the place. Eder made a number of fantastic tackles and recoveries to deny Chelsea from inflicting further damage to the home side.
Raphael Varane: 7/10
Nacho: 6/10
Marcelo: 6/10
Luka Modric: 7/10
Clearly exhausted. Modric did not see much of the ball throughout the game and Madrid were worse off because of it.
Casemiro: 7/10
Just like Modric and Kroos, Casemiro had a difficult night. The Brazilian made a couple of excellent tackles but struggled with Chelsea’s forward runs.
Toni Kroos: 7/10
Karim Benzema: 8/10
Yet another fantastic performance leading the line for Madrid. Karim has been scoring most if not all of Los Blancos’ goals this season and so it was no surprise that he scored the equaliser. The Frenchman is now the fourth highest Champions League goalscorer, level with Raul Gonzalez’s 71 goals.
Vinicius Jr: 6/10
Substitutions:
Eden Hazard: 6/10 – Came on to replace Vinicius. The Belgian wasn’t very involved during his short time on the pitch but did show some glimpses of his brilliance.
Odriozola: 6/10 – Came on to replace Carvajal for the last 15 minutes.
Asensio: 6/10 – Came on to replace Marcelo for the last 15 minutes as Zidane looked to change to a 4-3-3 formation.
Rodrygo: N/A – Very late substitute.
