On Tuesday night in the 2nd leg of the quarter-finals, Villarreal drew 1-1 to Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena and advanced on a 2-1 aggregate. Villareal went into the 2nd leg with a 1-0 lead following their win during the 1st leg.

In the other game, the champions Chelsea beat Real Madrid 3-2 at the Bernabau, but the Los Blancos advanced to the last four with a 5-4 aggregate. The 13-time champions, Real beat the Blues 3-1 a week prior at Stamford Bridge to take a huge advantage into the decider at home.

Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel feels they were unlucky, but in the same breath conceded that over the two legs they made too many mistakes which ultimately brought their reign as the European champions to an end.

“We were unlucky. That is why we are disappointed. We got beaten by individual quality and conversion. We made two mistakes, two ball losses.

“We deserved to go through after this match today. It was not meant to be.

“We have to reduce our number of mistakes and we could not reduce them to a minimum over the two legs. We had two crucial ball losses.

“There are no regrets. This is the kind of defeat you can take with pride as a sportsman.

“The players lived up to the plan in a very different way that we did against Brentford and in the first leg. This is the huge difference.

“We were never shy of making the point that this is the most important: how we live up to a tactic and perform in the structure. This was at the full limit today.

“We were very disciplined on the ball and very active and invested off the ball. We showed courage and from there we showed out quality. This is the right way to do it. If we have this kind of effort, we are a special team.”

On Wednesday night, Liverpool face Benfica at Anfield, while Atlético Madrid are at home to Manchester City at Wanda Metropolitano. The Reds lead Benfica 3-1 following the 1st leg, while the Citizens lead the Colchoneros 1-0 following last week’s win at the Etihad Stadium.

Both of these quarter-finals second leg ties kick-off at 21:00.

Morgan Piek/OFM Sport