Chelsea’s Thomas Tuchel has given an insight into the conversation he had with referee Szymon Marciniak last night straight after exiting the Champions League.
Blues manager Tuchel, who seemed visibly angry on the full-time whistle, confronted the official on the Bernabeu pitch after Chelsea were dumped out of the Champions League by Madrid.
It was a contest that required extra time after the teams were locked together at 4-4 on aggregate. Chelsea may have been beaten 3-1 at home in the first leg last week, but stunned the Madrid crowd on Tuesday night to lead 3-1 themselves after 90 minuets of compelling action.
Unfortunately, Karim Benzema scored the only goal of extra time to make it 3-2 on the night to Chelsea and 5-4 to eventual quarter-final winners Madrid.
Tuchel’s explained in his post-match press conference his only frustration towards referee Marciniak was the way he spoke with Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti straight after the game.
“I was disappointed that the referee had a good time with my colleague, Carlo Ancelotti. I know Carlo is a gentleman and a nice guy but when I wanted to go and say thank you for the match, I saw him smiling and laughing loudly with the opponents’ coach,” Tuchel said.
“I think this is the very, very wrong time to do this after a final whistle and 126 minutes where one team gave all their hearts and fought until the last drop. You go and see the referee smiling and laughing with the other coach. I think it is very, very bad timing. I told him this and that’s it.”
Emotions understandably running very high
Tuchel appeared to show huge upset and anger towards the referee after the game, but it was nothing over the line that deserves any special treatment.
The 48-year-old must be absolutely devastated after watching his team go so close to producing a miracle in Madrid.
Undoubtedly, Chelsea were by far the better team last night and easily did enough to reach the semis. The truth is you can’t make the mistakes they did over two legs and expect to get away with it in the Champions League, though.
They somehow need to recover in the next few days before facing Crystal Palace at Wembley Stadium this weekend in the FA Cup semi-finals.
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