Thomas Tuchel admits ‘mistake’ with Andreas Christensen and Vinicius Junior after Chelsea’s defeat to Real Madrid

Thomas Tuchel admits he made a tactical ‘mistake’ by allowing Andreas Christensen to be exposed by Vinicius Junior in Chelsea’s Champions League defeat to Real Madrid on Wednesday evening.

Tuchel admits Chelsea’s Champions League hopes are all but over after Carlo Ancelotti’s side ran out 3-1 winners at Stamford Bridge.

Two brilliant headers from Karim Benzema gave Madrid a two-goal lead after 24 minutes, while Chelsea were struggling to get to grips with Vinicius on Madrid’s left flank.

Kai Havertz pulled a goal back for Chelsea before Tuchel replaced Christensen and N’Golo Kante at half time after two poor performances. A mix-up between Edouard Mendy and Antonio Rudiger shortly after the restart then allowed Benzema to complete his hat-trick.

When asked about his decision to play Christensen against Vinicius in the first half before instructing Reece James to play deeper in the second half, Tuchel replied: ‘Yeah, it’s my mistake.

‘We changed the formation and wanted to turn things around because I think personally there was enough where we could hurt them.

‘But we were so far off our level in everything what the game demands, tactically, individually, in shape, in stiffness, in challenges that we tried to play in a new formation and then killed the game off with a big mistake after three minutes [in the second half].’

Asked if Christensen and Kante were at fault in the first half, Tuchel replied: ‘No, it was a tactical change.

‘It’s like always, it’s never on one player, it’s never on two players, it’s on all of us, I’m included in this.

‘Like I said, individually we lost shape and sharpness and obviously since the international break we don’t look the same.

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