Chelsea 0-2 Real Madrid (0-4): Rodrygo scores a brace as Spanish giants march into semi-finals

So it turns out Todd Boehly needs some work on his dressing room pep talks. The Chelsea owner likes to think of himself as the smartest man in the room, but it seems marching into the players’ inner sanctum a few days before the biggest game of their season and embarrassingly calling them wasn’t the motivational game changer he thought. would be. Who knows?

Three days after Boehly’s idea to compete, Chelsea’s season is over. The players he has amassed in excess of £600 million did not let themselves down in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid as they attempted to overcome a 2-0 deficit from the first leg at the Bernabeu. Had they taken their chance, they might have made it an awkward night for the 14-time winners of this contest.

But the harsh reality is that they weren’t good enough to take their chances. N’Golo Kante missed one early in the first half and Marc Cucurella missed another just before the break. Better teams with better players would have seized those opportunities. Chelsea gasped and puffed, but Madrid looked a different league to them in Spain and if it really mattered they looked a different league here too.

Two goals from Rodrygo in the second half ended Chelsea’s hopeless hopes of winning this tournament. A 2-0 win on the night might have flattered Madrid a bit, but a 4-0 aggregate victory did not. Chelsea have become a misshapen, bloated, overpowered, overvalued mess of a club under Boehly, whose prediction of a 3-0 win for his team last week seems dumber and dumber by the day. Against a team as smart and clinical as Madrid, Chelsea just got what they deserved.

Madrid will now likely face Manchester City in the semi-finals, which will feel like the final. Carlo Ancelotti’s side are going for a 15th European Cup. City will try to win for the first time and if Pep Guardiola’s side will be favorites as they protect their 3-0 lead over Bayern Munich tonight, Madrid look set to wear a cloak of invincibility in this competition. They wore it again last night.

Rodrygo (centre) completed a devastating count attack to end any hopes of a Chelsea quarter-final comeback

The Brazilian striker (right) made no mistake from close range as the visitors took a three-goal lead

Rodrygo performed Cristiano Ronaldo’s signature celebration as he scored a huge goal for the Spanish giants

Todd Boehly’s pre-game words of ‘motivation’ failed to have the desired effect as his side’s season was effectively coming to an end

Chelsea have now lost four games in a row since Frank Lampard took over as caretaker manager, but this defeat was not his fault. Chelsea are said to have already taken steps towards former Bayern boss Julian Nagelsmann, but convincing a leading coach to come to Bridge with Chelsea in this state of disarray and with no prospect of European football will be a hard sell. Chelsea is a superyacht heading for the rocks. Turning it around takes time.

No wonder Chelsea legend Didier Drogba could barely hide his disgust at the way Chelsea have been mismanaged by the new owners. “I don’t recognize my club anymore,” Drogba said after the game. So much for the hope that Chelsea would be able to match the march to glory that Drogba and his teammates went through in 2012 as they turned around a poor season. That team was filled to the brim with leaders. This team is not.

The team that won that year’s final by beating Bayern Munich in their own stadium was a very different team from the collection of talented but calm men so hastily and haphazardly assembled by Boehly, who struggled so painfully for some kind of chemistry as it has dropped through the Premier League to where it now lies, just below mid-table, with no hope of making the top four.

To some consternation among the home support, Lampard chose his starting eleven conservatively. He left both Raheem Sterling and Joao Felix on the bench and chose a side with Kai Havertz as an offensive fulcrum. The players in the starting line-up had only scored 17 goals all season.

Rodrygo grabbed his second goal from close range after a superb individual play by Federico Valverde

Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga looks dejected as Rodrygo is congratulated by home Madrid teammates

Frank Lampard has now lost four games in a row since taking charge, Chelsea’s biggest defeat since 1993

Ten minutes had passed when Chelsea spread the ball wide to Reece James, playing at right midfield, and James fired a searching cross towards the near post. The ball broke to Kante ten yards out and alone, the target yawned and Kante mishit his shot with his left foot so it bounced to the ground and harmlessly wide. Lampard turned away from the action and put his head in his hands.

It was a bad miss, but it seemed to upset Madrid. It offered them a glimpse of what could be. But they endured a period of Chelsea pressure and midway through the half Rodrygo hit an angled upward drive against the outside of the post and Modric put in a good diving stop from Kepa Arrizabalaga.

But Chelsea stayed in the game. In fact, they did more than that. James was a constant threat on the right – the outstanding player on the field in the first half – and the home midfield continued to control the game. But they couldn’t force a breakthrough. Half chances came and went and Madrid survived.

The visitors should have taken the lead a few minutes before the break. A nice exchange of passes freed Modric on the right and he curled a cross to the back post. Vinicius Junior ghosted for his marker and got to the ball first, but it bounced off his shin and flew wide.

A great save from Thibaut Courtois denied Marc Cucurella minutes before the break from close range at Stamford Bridge

N’Golo Kante also missed two big chances in the area before the Blues paid for their wastage

Chelsea wasted an even better chance on the stroke of the break. James was again the provider, he got free on the right and hit the ball over the face of the box. Kante threw herself at it, but was unable to make contact. It fell to Marc Cucurella, much maligned by Chelsea fans, at the back post.

Cucurella calmed down and stared redemption in the face, but Courtois, who had received a hostile reception from the home crowd for the way he left the club, rushed over. Cucurella hit his shot well enough, but Courtois spread and blocked it. “Thibault, Thibault, you’re an asshole,” Chelsea fans chanted to him as he walked off at half-time. A big grin crossed his face.

Five minutes into the second half, Chelsea came close again, but this time Kante’s effort from close range was blocked by Eder Militao. Already booked, Militao was lucky enough to escape a second yellow minutes later when he knocked down Trevoh Chalobah with a fumble challenge. The referee waved off Chelsea’s impassioned pleas for a red card.

Chelsea’s season is effectively over after their hopes of winning the tournament for a third time came to an end

Their anger at that perceived injustice soon mounted. Militao got a reprieve and played an excellent ball from defense to Rodrygo on the right flank, Chalobah sold himself with a flying tackle and Rodrygo hopped past and slid a ball over the goal. Benzema missed the ball, but it reached Vinicius Junior at the back post and he cut it back to Rodrygo, who lifted it past two men on the line into the net.

Rodrygo put the tie out of sight with a tap ten minutes from the end and Chelsea’s evening was complete when Mykhailo Mudryk fired a shot wide when he came through late. He was offside anyway.