A goal conceded, an injury sustained in the process, and then a penalty given away with 10 men on the pitch made it a disastrous end for Chelsea to an otherwise largely forgettable first half.

Thankfully, Edouard Mendy saved Sergio Aguero’s attempted panenka spot-kick so the deficit stood at one as the teams headed for the dressing rooms. Then Chelsea turned things around around the break…

‘We were lucky it did not take too much to come back and stay in the match, because we were lucky not to be 2-0 down,’ admitted Tuchel afterwards.

‘It was not a tactical problem or a big drama in the first half, it was three or four minutes, one situation where Andreas slipped and we conceded. That can happen. Then suddenly we were one man down and in this moment we lost a little bit the structure and concede a very harsh decision.

‘Could we have lost the game in these four minutes? Yes. Would it have been deserved? No. I am very happy Mendy kept us in the game.

‘At half-time we said let’s continue like it is 0-0 and not lose our heads because of the last three minutes. From there we could go and step up and try and play with courage, have more possession and more possession in their half. This is what the guys did.

‘The momentum changed completely with the goal. I could feel everybody were growing in confidence. We played with more and more quality and pressure. We never stopped attacking.

‘It’s a huge win, a big reaction and a fantastic team performance in the second half in the context we had one less day to recover, it was away, and we had a big win against Real Madrid. That had a huge impact mentally so that was a fantastic reaction from the boys.’

Tuchel spoke on the penalty given and another not after Kurt Zouma and Raheem Sterling came together

‘I am aware you need a bit of luck in any match of football, and we had it on our side in the second half,’ he said about the Zouma challenge.

‘I only saw it live, and I was in fear he would give it.

‘The first one [against Billy Gilmour was a 50/50 which maybe wasn’t worth overturning by VAR, but if he hadn’t given it live it wouldn’t have been worth overruling. It was a pretty tough one to take.

‘Second one I didn’t see, but I also heard Raheem Sterling was lucky to be on the field because he had a huge foul against Timo Werner.

‘You need these things, I am not here to talk bad about the referee, this is how it is. You need a bit of luck and this will never change.’

Chelsea’s outstanding run continues

‘It’s best to have consecutive good performances that lead to results. Everyone in the dressing room is super tired. Everybody out there gave his last drop of intensity and work-rate. These experiences and these big games are what you need to really strengthen your bond.

‘The group and the players do everything to force the luck on our side, and we caught the momentum to have another big win. It increases our self-confidence in a natural and healthy way, because everybody knows we have to restart on Wednesday.’

There is more reaction from Tuchel below...