The pulse had been faint beforehand and, as expected, it was extinguished for Chelsea well before full-time, this Champions League quarter-final exit sounding the death knell for their season.
Frank Lampard’s team had a go, bringing the hustle in the first-half and they almost fashioned a life-line to counter the grave damage from the Bernabéu, N’Golo Kanté and Marc Cucurella missing clear chances.
It was a night when Chelsea were heavy on perspiration, low on inspiration, Lampard’s line-up lacking the X-factor – or, to put it more bluntly, somebody to stick the ball in the net – and Real Madrid, the holders, the old masters, reeling them in.
Rodrygo did the damage, finishing off a slick break that he initiated, and then turning the screw towards the end, swooping after Federico Valverde had sliced through Chelsea’s backline and pulled back across the empty net. Rodrygo took his time, almost teasing the home team, before pulling the trigger.
Lampard’s caretaker management shows four games and four defeats, with just the one goal scored. The club remains in the grip of chaos and the final weeks of a traumatic season promise to be barren.
Chelsea were drinking heavily in the last-chance saloon and the way that they saw it the night before was how it had panned out on a few previous occasions. The statistics gave them a glimmer of hope – even if it was difficult to detect too much of that before kick-off and, certainly, in the wake of the Premier League loss here to Brighton on Saturday.
Chelsea had progressed from five of their previous seven ties in the competition when losing away from home first, including the past two when behind by two clear goals (Napoli in 2011-12 and Paris Saint-Germain in 2013-14). Lampard had mentioned the Napoli game on Monday, together with stuff about the need to believe. So, it was on, then?
Lampard’s selection was always going to invite scrutiny. At this stage of the competition last season, after Chelsea had lost the first-leg 3-1 at home to Madrid, the club’s manager at the time, Thomas Tuchel, went all out with a surprise and attack-minded 4-3-1-2 line-up. He so nearly pulled off one of the great comebacks, his team succumbing in extra-time.
Lampard’s team had the shock factor – N’Golo Kanté and Conor Gallagher as the No 10s in a 3-4-2-1 system – and it felt as though Madrid did not know what to make of it at the outset. When Luka Modric tried to make an early switch of the play, he found only Gallagher. What was he doing there?
When the shapes settled, it was clear to see what Lampard wanted – an aggressive press from the midfield four, especially the wing-backs, Reece James and Cucurella, and the extra pair in front of them. Kai Havertz, too, at the tip of the formation.
Lampard got it at first and the crowd, who desperately wanted something to get behind, found their voices. And not only when directing abuse towards their former goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois. They were particularly unimpressed when Courtois kissed the badge on his shirt after the half-time whistle.
What Lampard would have given for a first-half goal and he went through all manner of agonies when his team passed up two clear openings, the first when Havertz challenged David Alaba in the 10th minute and the ball broke for Kanté, well placed to the right of goal, ten yards out. Kanté snatched at the shot on the bounce, dragging well wide with his left foot.
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The second was in stoppage-time and was sparked by a Mateo Kovacic run. Havertz moved it on to James and his low cross was made to measure for Cucurella on the edge of the six-yard box. Courtois was out in a flash, spreading that enormous frame to make the goal look small. Cucurella shot at him.
It felt as though Madrid were within themselves before the interval, apart from a few flickers on the counter. Rodrygo and Modric went close and their big chance came on 41 minutes, Modric crossing and Vinícius Junior, in front of Wesley Fofana, somehow failing to connect.
James was in the mood, all strutting assurance, relishing the one-on-ones, particularly with Vinícius, who he has described as his toughest opponent. Vinícius has said the same about James. The Chelsea player was, however, horribly late with a tackle on Eduardo Camavinga after the restart, stamping in on him, the yellow card the very least of it.
It was feisty, Éder Militão running a risk with a foul on Trevoh Chalobah when he had already been booked. Kanté almost nipped onto a Gallagher header while Havertz shot at Courtois. And then Madrid made their move, a clinically executed break, ignited when Rodrygo reached a Militão diagonal ahead of Chalobah’s all-or-nothing lunge.
Rodrygo hared away to cross low from the byline, Karim Benzema missing the touch in the middle but Vinícius returning it at the far post for Rodrygo, who had bent his run back. Touch. Finish. All over. And was that Courtois goading the Chelsea fans at the other end?
