Chelsea’s 2021/22 season was a good one on the pitch, but it could have been so much better.
The Blues finished third in the Premier League that campaign, while they also managed to win both the Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup.
They came close to winning the FA Cup and Carabao Cup as well, losing on penalties in both of their finals against Liverpool, and nearly made it to the Champions League semi-finals.
Chelsea were knocked out by Real Madrid in the quarters, losing the first leg in a manner that left Thomas Tuchel absolutely fuming.
Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
Thomas Tuchel had to rewatch Real Madrid defeat in the middle of the night
Chelsea lost the first leg of their quarter-final tie against Real Madrid 3-1, with Karim Benzema scoring a hat-trick on the night.
He was helped by Edouard Mendy, whose underhit pass put Antonio Rudiger in a messy situation that the Frenchman was able to capitalise on.
It was no surprise, then, that Tuchel had a sleepless night. Everything that could have gone wrong did.
“I watched it when I got home and in the middle of the night,” the German was quoted as saying by Chelsea’s official website following his side’s defeat. “The next morning, I watched it here [at Cobham] and got angry again.
MORE CHELSEA STORIES
“I sat there in the middle of the night and the amount of chocolate I needed was immense so that I could go through the match again! It is not nice, and you start writing and you realise you are writing more and more minutes.”
Since then, Tuchel has gone on to manage Bayern Munich and the England national team, where he currently is today.
The 51-year-old’s first two matches in charge of the Three Lions ended in victory, with the most recent coming against Latvia on Monday. Chelsea captain Reece James scored a stunning goal, resulting in praise from his former boss.
Photo by Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images
Photo by Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images
Chelsea almost pulled off one of the Champions League’s greatest ever comebacks
Playing in the manner that they did in the first leg and having to travel to the Santiago Bernabeu for the second, not too many people gave Chelsea a chance of progressing to the semi-finals.
Yet they came so close to, putting in one of their best performances under Tuchel. The Blues actually won the second leg 3-2, going 3-0 up on the night thanks to goals from Mason Mount, Rudiger and Timo Werner.
They were literally 10 minutes away from going through and completing what would have been one of the greatest comebacks that the Champions League has ever seen.
Rodrygo and their familiar foe Benzema had other ideas, though. The former scored in the 80th minute to make the tie 4-4 on aggregate before the latter netted the decisive goal in extra time.
While Tuchel would have been disappointed with how things went in the first leg against Carlo Ancelotti’s side, he would have been proud of what his men accomplished at the Bernabeu.
It has been a while since Chelsea have had a massive European night like that. Hopefully Enzo Maresca can get the club back into Europe’s elite competition.
This current Chelsea team are fourth in the Premier League table at the minute, so there is a good chance of them making a return.
Whatever happens, Maresca is expected to be at Chelsea next season. But failing to qualify for the Champions League will not go down well.