Real Madrid’s Rodrygo floors Chelsea to seal Champions League semi-final spot

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