England legends Rio Ferdinand and Joe Cole have said that Chelsea may regret not finishing off their Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid in the first leg in Spain.
Former Chelsea star, Cole star feels that manager Thomas Tuchel ‘missed a little trick’ by failing to bring on Callum Hudson-Odoi and Reece James when Real Madrid were ‘on the ropes’.
Chelsea began the game brightly with Christian Pulisic putting them in front with a superb solo goal in the 14th minute after Timo Werner had struck an earlier effort straight at Thibaut Courtois.
Zinedine Zidane’s side drew level on the half-hour mark as Karim Benzema arrowed home an unstoppable volleyed finish.
Tuchel made a host of changes with 20 minutes to go, bringing in Reece James, Hakim Ziyech and Kai Havertz
Cole questioned Tuchel’s decisions in the second half as Hudson-Odoi remained on the bench and James was only introduced in the 67th minute.
“The only disappointing thing is not to put [the game] to bed,” Cole told BT Sport.
“I think early on when you had Real Madrid on the ropes and you could have got Callum Hudson-Odoi on or Reece James on a bit earlier to go at Marcelo… I think we’ve missed a little trick.
“I hope I’m wrong but I just think they won’t play as bad as that [in the second leg].
“And if [Sergio] Ramos is back for the second leg, they’ll go back to a back-four which they will be more comfortable with, Eden Hazard has another week of training. Does he come in and make an impact? …The performance could have been better.”
Adding his voice, Ferdinand said, “There’s talk that Ramos might be back for the second leg which would be a big help for Real Madrid but I think Chelsea before the game would have taken this result.
“…Yes they [Chelsea] will be disappointed they didn’t finish it off… Werner some gilt-edged chances he missed there.”
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