Champions Real Madrid beat Chelsea 2-0 on Wednesday The first leg of the quarter-finals of the European Champions League in footballwhile Milan settled the purely Italian confrontation with Napoli by leading it 1-0, scored by Algerian international Ismail Bennacer.
At its Santiago Bernabeu stadium, Real Madrid owes the victory that will make it play the second leg on the 18th of this month at Stamford Bridge in London comfortably, to the trio of Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio, who scored the goals of the match in the 22nd and 74th minutes, and Vinicius Junior, who had the two assists. .
Chelsea held its task in front of the 14-time champion of the competition, after he was forced to play the last half hour with ten players, after defender Ben Chilwell was sent off with a red card after a mistake he committed at the edge of the area on the Brazilian Rodrigo.
Chelsea once again suffered from offensive sterility, as it failed to score the net for the fourth match in a row, which is what has happened to it for the first time since December 1993.
Real started the match pressing, but Chelsea was the most dangerous two minutes after the starting whistle, relying on counter-attacks, including a ball started by N’Golo Kante and passed to striker Joao Felix, who entered the area and fired a crawl that was blocked by Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
The host team responded with a joint game on the left side of the area between Vinicius and Benzema, who got rid of the Brazilian Thiago Silva and hit with his left foot a ball that was blocked by goalkeeper Kepa Arisabalaga (12), but the latter failed in another attempt after a pass in the back of the defense from 25 meters from Dani Carvajal to the Brazilian inside The area hit it directly with his left foot, the Spaniard blocked it, and Benzema followed it into the empty goal (22).
It is Benzema’s fourth goal in 7 matches this season and the 90th in his career in the main continental competition. He also scored his 20th goal in 27 matches against English clubs, and the sixth in 5 matches against Chelsea.
Real started the second half and finished the first, after a wonderful individual effort from Vinicius on the left side, to enter the penalty area and pass a ball to Benzema, who in turn turned it to Croatian Luka Modric outside the area, so that the latter curled a ball that passed centimeters over the crossbar (51).
Substitute player Asensio scored the second goal with a shot from the edge of the area, after a new assist from Vinicius (74). Benzema missed a header in front of the goal (90 + 2), and Rudiger saved his team by saving a shot (90 + 4).
Little progress for Milan
And at the San Siro stadium, Algerian international Ismail Bennacer scored the only goal for his Milan team, against his compatriot Napoli, to lead him to victory. The goal came in the 40th minute.
Napoli played the match in the absence of its Nigerian top scorer Victor Osimhen, who suffered a muscle injury during his participation with his country in the last international window. On the other hand, Milan, the defending champion, entered seven times, the last of which was in 2007, with high morale against its southern rival, after inflicting a severe loss on it by four clean matches in its own home earlier this month in the local league.
France 24/AFP
