Thomas Tuchel praised N’Golo Kante’s “top performance” for Chelsea against Real Madrid but claimed he could have been more “decisive”.
Kante was named Man of the Match for a typical all-action display in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw against Madrid.
The Frenchman was roundly praised by pundits after the game but Tuchel said he was disappointed with his “last pass” on a number of occasions.
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Tuchel told Chelsea TV after the game: “Yeah top performance. Unfortunately he also lacked a little bit the last pass.
“He could have been even decisive in front of the goal, he was driving at the back of the midfield from Real. But a very, very strong performance.
“It’s a pity that we don’t have Kova [Mateo Kovacic], because Kova is still more or less the same type of player, driving with the ball, and could have been very important.
“You can see that Jorginho is very, very tired and a bit overloaded. You feel this in the decision-making, in some easy ball loses.
“I blame nobody because I felt that from the mental point of view, the physical point of view, coming from West Ham – crucial game, away game – second day after the match you have travel and everything, you arrive here and the next pressure is on.
“So I don’t blame nobody, but it was like this, we could have used one more day to be a bit more clinical.”
Chelsea looked as though they might take Real Madrid apart in the first half but were let down by same wasteful finishing from Timo Werner in particular, with Rio Ferdinand criticising Tuchel for giving the German too many opportunities.
And Tuchel admitted his side should have taken a lead into the second leg.
“I have a feeling we should have won the first half and that we deserved to win the first half,” he continued.
“We could have perhaps decided this game in the first half an hour when we were playing so strong.
“It’s half-time and we’ll have to fight for every centimetre and every advantage that we want to have and we need to fight and deserve it.”
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