The C1 is their kingdom. Surprised this weekend at home by Villarreal in the Spanish Liga (3-2), the 2022 European champions took the lead on Wednesday April 12 in the duel between the last two winners of the trophy.
Real Madrid dominated Chelsea (2-0), with a new goal from Karim Benzema, and AC Milan took a small advantage over Napoli (1-0), in the last two first leg quarter-finals of the League of Nations. champions.
After the tricolor (22nd), Marco Asensio (74th) doubled the bet, but the two goals were inspired by Vinicius, a strike badly repelled by goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga which benefits the Frenchman, and above all a delicious pass with feint of look for the Spanish winger.
Author of his 90? goal in the Champions League, the Lyonnais returns to a length of Robert Lewandowski, 3? top scorer in the history of the competition (91 goals). A challenge that Karim Benzema could quickly take up as he is regular in knockout matches. In the last nine games he has found the net fourteen times.
Ngolo Kanté’s Blues had two big chances in the first half, brilliantly erased by Thibaut Courtois, then suffered the law of Real, especially after the exclusion of Ben Chilwell for a foul in the position of last defender on Rodrygo (57th).
Chelsea remain five games without a win in all competitions. The induction of the fourth coach of the season, Franck Lampard, after Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter and interim Bruno Saltor has not changed anything, only the return match on Tuesday remains to save the season for the club bought by the billionaire American Todd Boehly.
The coach, a former defender of the “blues”, called for people to continue to believe in it, in a post-match press conference: “Real have great qualities, we knew that, it was a big challenge… But the door is always open. We will have to try everything next week… Obviously, if we don’t believe in it, if we don’t believe we have a passing percentage, it’s useless. »
Maignan decisive for Milan
AC Milan took a less clear advantage but won against Napoli, thanks to a powerful strike from Ismaël Bennacer (40th), a player who passed through the Arles-Avignon training center.
The “rossoneri” could have conceded the opener several times, but France goalkeeper Mike Maignan made some splendid saves early in the game.
The 100% Italian duel therefore remains open with a view to returning in six days to the Diego-Maradona stadium. Napoli are hoping to find Victor Osimhen, whose power was lacking at the San Siro, but will be without midfielder André-Frank Anguissa, who was sent off fifteen minutes from the end, and defender Kim Min-jae, who will also be suspended.
Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti didn’t seem worried: “I saw a great attitude from my players, a great reaction after what happened in the league (4-0 defeat). They are players who do not have international experience, who are at an age where they have not yet played matches of this importance, but I have seen a great reaction, always playing high, going to duels . Maignan made two or three crucial interventions. »
The club of Aurelio de Laurentiis is the undisputed leader of the Italian championship with sixteen points ahead of Lazio, second.
On Tuesday, Manchester City against Bayern Munich (3-0) and Inter Milan at Benfica Lisbon (2-0) took an option for the semi-finals.