Thomas Tuchel fears Chelsea will "get hammered" by Real Madrid in their second leg if they do not improve quickly.

Chelsea’s defence of the Champions League is hanging by a thread after Karim Benzema’s ruthless hat-trick saw the Spanish giants leave Stamford Bridge with a 3-1 lead to take into the second leg of their quarter-final. Two goals in three first half minutes put the visitors in front, before Kai Havertz pulled one back for Chelsea before the break.

The two-goal advantage was gained once more by Madrid in the opening minute of the second half when an Edouard Mendy error was pounced upon by Benzema to roll into an empty net and collect the match ball. Ad/> Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel was not happy with what he saw, telling BT Sport, “It is a heavy loss.

It was one of the worst first halves that I saw from us here at Stamford Bridge. Individually and as a team it was by far not enough.

It was far from our standards.” Champions LeagueChelsea’s era-defining month off to worst possible start – and only gets harder7 HOURS AGO Seven touches and ‘volume’ — how Havertz leapfrogged Lukaku to become Chelsea’s No 9 Benzema hat-trick heroics for Real Madrid leave holders Chelsea on the brink Chelsea’s era-defining month off to worst possible start – and only gets harder Tuchel was left baffled by his team’s inability to complete the basics of the game, saying, «passing, where we passed, how we passed when we passed, when we attacked, the ball possession game. First half was so from any standards that we set ourselves that we cannot complain when we lose.” The second half was undoubtedly a better showing from Chelsea, but Tuchel is not taking many positives from that, saying, „we had 16 shots in the second half.