Thomas Tuchel says the Real Madrid tie is barely alive after the loss

Thomas Tuchel appeared to write off Chelsea's hopes of retaining their European title last night following a crushing 3-1 loss to Real Madrid.

Karim Benzema's hat-trick has provided the Spanish giants with a resounding advantage heading into next week's second leg in Madrid.

And when asked whether the tie was still alive Tuchel, who lead the club to Champions League glory last season, replied: 'No, the tie is not alive at the moment. 

'We have to find our level back because since international break. I worry more about the Southampton game this weekend.' 

'You cannot expect a result from this kind of performance. We need three goals and how often did this happen? Let's be honest.

'We are competitive and need to find our competitive spirit and then we can talk. 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 and then you lose games.' 

Tuchel also pinned the part of the blame of last night's loss on his team's jam-packed schedule, saying: 'I was a bit shocked when I saw the amount of games we play in 2022, I saw it in last days - we are the team with Liverpool to play more than any team in England and Europe. 

'It is a bit worrying and the schedule is not our friend in this season. We struggle from it.'

Romelu Lukaku, who started the game on the bench, missed a glorious chance to cut the deficit to 3-2 shortly after coming on and Tuchel couldn't hide his disappointment saying: 'You saw the momentum was back and we had the chance but the individual decisions today even at 2-1 was far from our level and far from our standards.'

'Goals are crucial, we get them, we gave a third one away