Rafael van der Vaart launches bizarre attack on Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel

Rafael van der Vaart has slammed Thomas Tuchel’s behaviour after Chelsea’s Champions League defeat to Real Madrid and says the German went down in his estimations.

The west Londoners gave a superb display at the Bernabeu despite exiting the competition, taking a 3-0 lead on the night only to be undone by a magical assist from Luka Modric for Rodrygo to level the scores on aggregate before Karim Benzema netted an extra-time winner.

After the match, Tuchel directed his frustrations towards the referee and criticised Szymon Marciniak for laughing and shaking hands with opposition boss Carlo Ancelotti.

‘I was disappointed that the referee had a good time with my colleague Ancelotti. I know that Carlo is a gentleman and a nice guy and when I go I see him smiling and laughing out loud with the opposition coach,’ said Tuchel in his post-match press conference.

‘I think this is a very, very wrong time to do this at the end of 120 minutes of fight, when you give every last drop, to go [and see that]. I think this is very, very bad timing.’

But Van der Vaart, who played for both Real Madrid and Chelsea’s rivals Tottenham, felt Tuchel’s complaints bordered on the ridiculous and hit out at the coach for being a sore loser.

Speaking about Tuchel’s comments on Dutch TV station Ziggo Sport, Van der Vaart said: ‘I like respect. If you win, give respect to the opponent, and if you lose I think respect is even more beautiful.

‘Carlo Ancelotti, for example, never does anything wrong. Never. But then you see this dragon [beastly, angry person]… I can only call it a dragon!

‘If I had been Tuchel’s assistant I would have said, “We all lose sometimes, but do it with style.”

‘Chelsea played a fantastic game and they have a great coach, I am one