Benzema Stops Chelsea As Villarreal Beat Bayern Munich to Reach UCL Semi-Final -By Shereefdeen Sawe

The defending champions Chelsea have bowed out from the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday following a heartbreaking 5-4 aggregate.

Although the Blues have cemented a masterclass display at the Santiago Bernabeu, beating the Spanish Giants, Real Madrid 3-2 but the victory was not enough to move their boat to the semi-finals as they could not tally the aggregate scoresheet, having suffered a 3-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge in first leg encounter.

Mason Mount revives confidence for the Blues after breaking the deadlock at the 15th minute. Thomas Tuchel’s men were top of the game, but they had to settle with the 1-0 lead before the break.

The Premier League side added the second through a powerful header from Antonio Rudiger in the 51st minute of the game. The Blues had almost staged a miraculous comeback, but Malco Alonso’s goal was cancelled following a thorough review by VAR.

Timo Werner finally set the scene for what would have been recorded among the unprecedented comebacks in champions league history, but Rodyrgo saved the Los Blancos courtesy of an immaculate pass from Luka Modric to send the game to extra-time.

At the extra time, Karim Benzema finally resumed back to his spirit of tormenting Chelsea after scoring the most decisive goal of the game with a header. The French striker registered a hat-trick in the first leg, but could not just stop suffocating the Blues as he scored again to finally see them off.

In Germany, Chukwueze mustered a moment of magic in a game that saw Villarreal knock out the ruthless Bayern Munich in a 2-1 aggregate after both sides were held to a 1-1 draw.

Though the Bavarians ensured that their visitors spend the whole 90 minutes under the cosh. But could not qualify to the next round, having suffered a 1-0 defeat in the first leg showdown.

Bayern Munich got the better part of the game but had to wait till the second half to take the lead through Robert Lewandowski. The match was on the brink of entering extra-time but Chukwueze came from the bench to subject the German Champions to a shell-shock exit.