Antonio Rüdiger will use Madrid heartbreak as fuel for next big match

For Antonio Rüdiger, today is another day, the time to get back in the saddle, to build up towards Chelsea’s next big game – the FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace at Wembley on Sunday. There is no point in being sad any more. The steeliness of his professionalism will, as usual, kick in.

But it is probably fair to describe Wednesday as a lost day for Rüdiger, when the pain and frustration of what had happened in Madrid on Tuesday night gnawed away, tormenting him.

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Few players take defeat as hard as Rüdiger and one of the most vivid snapshots of Chelsea’s Champions League quarter-final exit against Real Madrid at the Bernabéu came after the full-time whistle.

As Real celebrated their 5-4 aggregate passage, despite a 3-2 defeat on the night, Rüdiger lay prone. The Real defender David Alaba helped him to his feet but Rüdiger appeared oblivious, locked instead in an internal argument, heavy on violent movements and exhortations to the sky. Then, he sank back down to the ground, head in hands, seemingly wanting to curl up into a ball.

Rüdiger had been emotional throughout. Perhaps, with his future uncertain – out of contract in June and with no immediate prospect of an extension as Chelsea remain between owners – he sensed a kind of swan-song, the final stretch at a club where he is adored by the support. More likely, though, this was just Rüdiger, the heart-on-sleeve competitor.

The central defender had scored for 2-0 on the night, powering home a 51st-minute header from Mason Mount’s corner and, in stoppage time at the end of the 90 minutes – the tie level at 4-4 – it was his header that teed up the substitute Christian Pulisic for a