Thomas
Tuchel was left frustrated with Chelsea's finishing in the 1-1 draw with
Real Madrid, saying Timo Werner missing big chances does not help.
Chelsea grabbed a potentially vital away goal in the draw with Zinedine
Zidane's side in the semi-final first-leg tie, however, they could have
taken a lead to Stamford Bridge had they been more clinical with their
chances in the first half.
Werner squandered the best of those openings with 10 minutes gone, failing
to beat Thibaut Courtois from six yards out after the chance had been put on
a plate for him by Christian Pulisic.
Werner had scored his first Premier League goal since mid-February against
West Ham on Saturday in the 1-0 victory but did also miss with the goal
gaping from a rebound.
Tuchel admitted Werner's inability not to take what he called "big chances"
is becoming a frustration.
"He missed a big one at West Ham and now he's missed a big one here, that
does not help," he said.
"But it doesn't help crying about it or regretting it all the time.
"There are millions of people who have harder things to deal with than
chances that you miss. So the good thing about sport is that no one cares
tomorrow, today we were sad and angry in the moment - this is normal. He is
sad, he is angry and disappointed. Tomorrow he has a free day and the next
day he must put his chin up. He's a top guy, a professional guy. He works
hard. He's in the positions. He will not stop believing. Everyone accepts
the situation like it is. With strikers, if you score the next game, nobody
speaks."
He added: "I don't feel we are pointing fingers but of course the strikers
want to score, to do it for themselves and the team. This is the highest
level and when you have a good half an hour like we did with so many chances
and half chances, then yes we'd wish for more composure and more precision
in the decision making and finishing. The challenge was not to worry about
that and to not regret too long. We did that in the second half by defending
very well."
Chelsea took the lead after 13 minutes when Pulisic rounded Courtois to give
Tuchel's side the perfect start.
Madrid looked an ageing side up against the bright and bubbly Chelsea attack
but managed to fire their way back into the game when Karim Benzema levelled
the scores in thumping fashion (29).
Tuchel was on the whole positive about the performance but was disappointed
his team didn't hold onto their lead going into half-time.
He said to BT Sport: "We started the game very well, with a lot of courage
and quality. We deserved to win the first half, we had chances.
Unfortunately, they scored from a set-piece and they had nothing else, we
didn't allow any chances.
"It was a disappointing score at half-time. We had to stay calm and not lose
confidence. The second half was very tactical, you could feel that we are a
bit tired. We only had a few days to recover from another tough away game.
We have to live with 1-1.
"The goal was well deserved and we should have scored at least one more. We
conceded more or less out of nothing and that can always happen against
individual quality."
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