Andreas Christensen says the Blues must find a rapid remedy to our recent defensive issues if we are to advance to the Champions League semi-finals, a task the Dane acknowledges will be extremely difficult but not impossible after losing our first leg with Real Madrid 3-1.
Karim Benzema’s hat-trick did the damage at the Bridge last night. He followed up a pair of superb first-half headers before benefitting from a bad mix-up at the back less than a minute after play restarted.
Christensen, who played the first 45 minutes on the right side of the back three, pinpointed the recent goals we have shipped as the primary source of concern in his analysis of what went wrong.
‘We weren’t at our top level,’ he said.
‘We started good for 10 or 15 minutes, good energy with the crowd behind us – and they stayed behind us the whole game – but they successfully took the tempo out of the game.
‘We have conceded seven goals now in two games which is not normal for us. It’s not just about this game, we did it as well at the weekend. We have to fix it, and we have to do it quick.’
That starts at Southampton on Saturday before we travel to the Spanish capital in search of a legendary European comeback.
Christensen knows we have a mountain to climb but he also pointed out we are fortunate the away-goal rule is no longer in operation.
‘It’s two goals, it’s still going to be very difficult, but it can’t be worse than this. We have to go there and make a big performance.
‘We have to try and turn it around but it’s going to be difficult. We weren’t on top and we know that, but we have nothing to lose so we have to go there, put in a big performance and hopefully turn it around.’