We put in a strong performance in Spain to secure a narrow advantage with a 1-1 draw and an away goal.

We are now officially Real Madrid’s bogey team, becoming the only side they have played four times without winning, while Thomas Tuchel is the only manager ever to have faced the Spaniards on five occasions without suffering a defeat.

Denying them chances

Despite Karim Benzema’s goal against the run of play, our defensive prowess was clear in the way we restricted the number of opportunities for the experienced French striker, who netted his 71st Champions League goal. That strike came from Real Madrid’s only shot on target.

Since 2003/04, on only one occasion have Los Blancos managed less shots on target in a Champions League game. Tellingly, that was in last season’s group stage, against a Paris Saint-Germain side also managed by Tuchel.

Their goal last night was also the only shot, on or off target, which they managed inside our penalty area without being blocked, as we mostly kept them at arm’s length. That goes to show we can consider ourselves unfortunate not to have kept a clean sheet in Madrid, something we almost certainly would have achieved if the home side’s one chance hadn’t fallen to their wily old campaigner of a centre-forward.

In contrast, Chelsea produced a total of 12 shots, five of them from inside the box and five of them on target, as we provided the bigger attacking threat and created the better of the opportunities in the final third, while at the other end our four blocks showed determination not to allow our opponents a clear sight of goal.

The contrasting nature of the defending both teams were required to do clearly showed where the difference was. Both teams were attempting to win the ball high up the pitch and prevent their opponents playing with a high press, but Chelsea were the only ones to pull it off, as shown by our massive 45 ball recoveries.

Real Madrid, however, repeatedly found their press broken or bypassed and had to fall back to more traditional methods of defending deep into their own half, resulting in their defenders making 21 tackles and 20 clearances. Our own back line stayed in single figures for both, needing to make just six tackles nine clearances. Eder Militao’s seven tackles and Raphael Varane’s seven clearances were both more than double those of any Chelsea player.

Controlling the middle

Given our position in the driving seat for much of the game, it is perhaps surprising to see that Real Madrid actually edged the possession statistics, with the Blues having 48 per cent of the ball, as well as playing slightly fewer passes (579) than Real Madrid (598), despite those being statistics we usually dominate. However, it was a controlled performance from Tuchel’s side which owed more to quality than quantity.

As soon as it was announced that Toni Kroos would return to complete Real Madrid's regular midfield three alongside Casemiro and Luka Modric, it was clear the midfield would be a crucial area. That is not a trio used to being bossed, but that is exactly what the Blues did to them.

It took a slight shift away from our usual way of playing, though. For a start, Mason Mount was required to put in a heroic shift, even by his tireless standards, at times almost becoming a box-to-box midfielder as he dropped in with Jorginho and N’Golo Kante to make up the numerical difference in defence, before getting forward in support of Christian Pulisic and Timo Werner in possession.

That left Modric, usually famed for creating time and space on the ball, while not losing it, being forced to rush under pressure while caught in a Mount-Jorginho pincer movement. As a result the Croatian was dispossessed five times, more than any other player on the pitch. There can’t have been too many games when he topped that particular statistic.

The pairing of Jorginho and Kante also moved away from their usual dynamic. In some ways, Jorginho took on Kante’s role, patrolling the whole pitch from a central position and chasing possession, while the Frenchman moved wider and further forward, closer to Pulisic, often being the one to launch attacks with a lung-busting run into the channel that left Spanish defenders trailing in his wake.

Those right-sided breakaways left Kante with nine successful dribbles and Pulisic with seven. No other player made more than two. That probably also explains why no player committed more fouls than the three from Real Madrid’s left wing-back Marcelo, including picking up one of the Spanish side’s five bookings.

At times, in the middle, it was almost head-to-head battle for control between Kroos and Jorginho, as their 98 and 91 passes respectively were 30 more than any other players on the pitch managed. However, Jorginho was the one dictating where the game was played, while Kroos dropped deeper and deeper to get on the ball.

Attacking as a team

The idea of building from the back has rarely been so apparent as it was in the way Chelsea played in Madrid last night. The wide spread of our back three across the pitch ensured they could find time on the ball and made it almost impossible, not to mention exhausting, for Real Madrid’s players to apply lasting pressure when we had possession in defence.

When you look at just how wide and far forward Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen were for much of the game, they seem more like wingers than centre-backs, while it is no coincidence that it was Rudiger who set up our goal after stepping up inside the opposition half.

Their width also allowed the two wing-backs, especially Cesar Azpilicueta, to come inside and play narrow more often than we are used to, adding further weight of numbers in that midfield battle when Mount was caught upfield, as well as sneaking unnoticed into dangerous central positions on the attack. Azpilicueta screaming for the ball in a centre-forward’s position on the shoulder of the last defender became a regular, if surprising, sight during the first half.