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Man Utd, Real Madrid, PSG & Barca eye Rudiger

Transfer interest in Antonio Rudiger is set to ramp up this week after Chelsea were knocked out of the Champions League.

Rudiger, 29, scored in the second leg against Real Madrid but Chelsea let their 3-0 lead slip and exited the competition.

Now the Spanish giants could rub salt in the wounds by making an approach for Rudiger in the coming days.

The centre-back is out of contract in the summer and there has been a lot of talk about his future with Chelsea desperate to keep hold of him.

Several foreign clubs are keen on Rudiger and are ready to make a move now Chelsea are out of Europe. According to reports, Rudiger was not prepared to decide his future while the Blues remained in the Champions League.

Barcelona have previously held talks with the German’s representatives about a possible move.

Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus are also said to be interested in Rudiger and might believe now is the right time to make a move.

Meanwhile, Manchester United have been monitoring Rudiger’s situation but first the club will likely need to sort out their managerial situation.

Erik ten Hag has reportedly verbally agreed to join the Red Devils on a four-year deal.

‘Our Mount and Loftus-Cheek tactics worked’

Chelsea’s star defender Antonio Rudiger revealed the special tactics that so nearly pulled off a mighty Champions League comeback triumph against Real Madrid.

The Blues surged into a 3-0 lead at the Bernabeu before Real lethally struck twice from their limited chances for a 5-4 aggregate win in an outstanding quarter-final.

And Rudiger enjoyed how Chelsea profited for so long from Mason Mount and Ruben Loftus-Cheek getting in behind Real’s anchorman midfielder Casemiro.

The German told the Blues’ website: “That was the game plan, to find our No10s Ruben and Mason, behind Casemiro always to find the space.

“Mason found it, he got the goal and we controlled it. We didn’t panic or anything like this.

“I think we did it quite well and in the second half we scored goals and did everything we could.

‘I think we found space between the defence and Casemiro. That was the plan and we got in those positions and Timo Werner, Mason Mount and Kai Havertz were very dangerous.”

But Rudiger added: “The Champions League is difficult because you play against the best in Europe and if you make little mistakes they punish you.

“Over the two legs we did too many mistakes, too many individual errors, that made them go through, and of course their quality with Modric and Benzema.

‘There are regrets, especially the first game, because we didn’t have the energy like in Madrid. Obviously over the two legs we made too many mistakes and at this high level of football you get punished.”

Rudiger: We dominated and outplayed Real

Antonio Rudiger believes Chelsea ‘dominated and outplayed’ Real Madrid despite their agonising champions league exit.

The holders overturned their 3-1 first-leg deficit to lead 3-0 at the Bernabeu – before Real netted twice to win 5-4 on aggregate.

The Blues’ second scorer, Rudiger, who was brilliant in central defence, told Chelsea’s website: “The positive is we didn’t give up.

“Not many teams can come here and dominate them as we did. But the big ‘but’ is, over the two legs, we made these type of mistakes. Against Real Madrid you get punished.

“We were close. I think we dominated them and we outplayed them, we outran them, but at the end of the day it’s little details that we missed.

“We scored three goals, I think not many can come here and do that. For me we outplayed them, we outran them and we did a fantastic match, but if you look at both games we need to win these.”

Wenger wants some throws replaced by kick-ins

Arsene Wenger might have been thrown under the bus in Qatar last month – but he managed to avoid injury and is still seeking to remake football in his own image, writes MARTIN LIPTON.

The former Arsenal boss was the frontman for the dumped biennial World Cup plan.

But Wenger, Fifa’s head of global football development, remains keen on changing the Laws of the game to make football more entertaining.

Wenger’s plans to trial a new “daylight” offside law, giving a huge advantage to the attacking team, have been iced pending the potential introduction of “semi-automated offsides” calibrated near-instantly by skeletal “limb-tracking” technology for the World Cup.

The Frenchman, though, still believes allowing kick-ins instead of throw-ins in the defensive half, if they are within five seconds of the ball going out, will speed up play.

Wenger’s mantra is “one thing at a time” but it is still on his agenda.

Romelu tipped as ideal Kane replacement

Darren Bent says his former club Tottenham should be in the market for Chelsea flop Romelu Lukaku.

He told talkSPORT: “As long as Antonio Conte’s there I don’t think Harry Kane would go anywhere.

“But if worse came to worse and Harry Kane did leave and go elsewhere, and if they can get Lukaku, then you’ve seen what Conte can get out of Romelu Lukaku.

“Even down to his nutrition, because that was the best I’ve ever seen him look last season and at the start of this season.

“If there was an opportunity and Kane leaves and Conte can get Lukaku, I’d go out all day to get it – all day.”

Chelsea’s performance praised

Football pundit Gabby Agbonlahor was blown away by Chelsea’s performance against Real Madrid on Tuesday.

He said on talkSPORT: “Wow, how good were Chelsea? Do you know what I liked about the performance the most was that Chelsea played a four at the back,” admitted Agbonlahor.

“I called them boring last week because that five at the back for me is a boring formation.

“Last night, it was like ‘Reece James you go with Vinicius, Loftus-Cheek you stay on the right side and look to help Reece James when needed’; he didn’t even need the help.

“Then the front three of Havertz, Werner and Mount, they were outstanding. The way they switched roles, all had free roles. And Chelsea were very unlucky.”

If you Levi me now

Chelsea may not get to see the best of Levi Colwill.

The talented youngster, 19, has been a revelation on-loan at Huddersfield Town, as The Terriers push for promotion from the Championship.

His form, and current situation with the Blues, has alerted Premier League clubs that he could be available in the summer.

Everton, Leicester City, and Southampton are all keeping tabs on the centre-half, dubbed the ‘next Rio Ferdinand’.

And it could be that Colwill leaves Stamford Bridge and establishes himself as an England international, just like his pal Marc Guehi has done some eight miles away at Crystal Palace.

Piers slams Tuchel

Piers Morgan has slammed “embarrassing” Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel.

Seeing his comments, Morgan took to Twitter to criticise the Blues boss.

The Sun columnist wrote: “Embarrassing by Tuchel.

“They were probably laughing at how badly Chelsea choked after having the game in the bag.”

Loftus-Cheek/Sarri reunion

Ruben Loftus-Cheek is set to be offered a career reboot at Lazio – under his former Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri, SUNSPORT’S STEVE GOODMAN WRITES.

Loftus-Cheek has been shipped out on loan twice, to Crystal Palace in 2017 and Fulham last term.

But the Londoner enjoyed his best ever season under Sarri’s management in 2018-19, when he played 40 games and scored ten goals.

The current Lazio coach is braced to lose star midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic this summer.

The £60million-rated Serbian ace has been linked with a host of clubs including Manchester United.

And reports in Italy claim Sarri will seek to bring in Loftus-Cheek as a replacement for the 27-year-old.

Ferdinand defends Rudiger

Rio Ferdinand has defended Antonio Rudiger following Chelsea’s Champions League exit

Rudiger reacted explosively at full-time when Chelsea crashed out against Real Madrid 5-4 on aggregate.

Former Manchester United defender Ferdinand backed the Chelsea defender, referencing his own experience of losing big games.

Ferdinand told BT Sport: “You can’t control it. We’ve all been there after big games, I’ve said and done things that you regret.

“I hit walls, I ended up kicking people at times.

“I got done at Chelsea kicking someone by accident, you don’t mean it you just lose your head, you don’t mean anything by it.”

Tuchel slams ref

Thomas Tuchel has slammed the referee in Chelsea’s loss to Real Madrid for having a laugh with opposition boss Carlo Ancelotti after the game.

Tuchel said: “I was disappointed that the referee had a good time with Carlo.

“I know that Carlo is a gentleman and a nice guy but when I wanted to go and say thank you, I saw him smiling and laughing loud with the opponent’s coach.

“I think this is the very, very wrong time to do this after the final whistle, 126 minutes of a team giving their heart and fighting to the last drop.

“When you go and see a referee smiling and laughing with the other coach, it’s very bad timing. I told him this.”

Lukaku tipped for Conte reunion

Darren Bent says his former club Tottenham should be in the market for Chelsea flop Romelu Lukaku.

He told talkSPORT: “As long as Antonio Conte’s there I don’t think Harry Kane would go anywhere.

“But if worse came to worse and Harry Kane did leave and go elsewhere, and if they can get Lukaku, then you’ve seen what Conte can get out of Romelu Lukaku.

“Even down to his nutrition, because that was the best I’ve ever seen him look last season and at the start of this season.

“If there was an opportunity and Kane leaves and Conte can get Lukaku, I’d go out all day to get it – all day.”

Chelsea player ratings

N’golo Kante and Kai Havertz were in the firing line when the notoriously hard to please L’Equipe’s player ratings were published following Chelsea’s defeat to Real Madrid.

French newspaper L’Equipe’s tough rating analysts gave the pair just a 4/10 for their performances at the Bernabeu – the worst out of the Chelsea squad.

The performances of the pair clearly didn’t satisfy L’Equipe’s master raters.

Although they were still rated higher than Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos, who was only given a lowly 3/10.

Antonio Rudiger was Chelsea’s top performer, with his expert header combined with a dominating display at the back earning him an 8/10.

Elsewhere is it was fives and sixes across the board, while James and Mason Mount both earned a 7/10.

Real Madrid labelled ‘immortal’

Real Madrid stars have been hailed as “immortal” after scraping past Chelsea into the Champions League semi-finals.

Carlo Ancelotti’s side have been roundly praised for their resilience by the Spanish morning papers.

AS labelled them “immortal” for their comeback.

While Marca led with the line: “What a night, what delirium!”

Alaba’s dance moves

Real Madrid star David Alaba showed off some wacky dance moves after helping the Spaniards dump Chelsea out of the Champions League.

There was quite the party in the Bernabeu home dressing room after Karim Benzema’s extra-time header saw Real qualify for the semi-finals.

Goals from Mason Mount, Antonio Rudiger and Timo Werner had initially seen Chelsea overturn a 3-1 deficit to lead 4-3 on aggregate, before the hosts came back to win the tie 5-4.

It sparked joyous scenes in the Real Madrid dressing room after the game, with Alaba the man leading the celebrations.

The 29-year-old was filmed busting out the dance moves by the club’s official Twitter account.

Members of the squad clapped along as Alaba wiggled his body to the beat of the music that was blaring out of the dressing room speakers.

Antonio Rudiger roars

Antonio Rudiger let out a yell of frustration as his side were dumped out of the Champions League by Real Madrid last night.

Upon the final whistle Rudiger sank to the Santiago Bernabeu turf.

Opposition defender David Alaba sportingly picked up his Blues counterpart.

Just as he did so, Rudiger screamed in frustration, turning his back on Alaba.

Around 45 seconds later the German sank to his haunches again, still muttering to himself in anger.

Chelsea transfer options discussed

Glen Johnson has identified who he’d like Chelsea to bring in if they sell Romelu Lukaku for the right price.

He told Bettingodds: “If Chelsea get the money that they need, I’d like them to get Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland.

“They’re both going to be super, super expensive. It just depends on what they can get for Lukaku.

“If he goes, you’re not going to get anywhere near the £97.5m they paid for him from Inter Milan.

“It would be an extremely tough deal to do. If you’re talking about just strikers however, then I’d like Haaland to come in to replace any outgoing forwards.”

Modric praises Blues

Real Madrid ace Luka Modric praised Chelsea after he played a hand in dumping the Blues out of the Champions League.

Modric said of his fallen opponents: “They are a very good side. They are the most complicated rival we could face, for me.

“I watch them a lot because of my friend Mateo [Kovacic]. I watch them a lot so I know how good they are, physical team and they have so many talented players.

“I knew it was going to be complicated and it was not over before first result.”

Rio Ferdinand loses voice

Luka Modric proved age is just a number with another stunning Champions League performance for Real Madrid against Chelsea, capped off by an outrageous assist.

The 36-year-old veteran played a ball so good to set up Rodrygo to score it caused Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand to “lose his voice”.

The pass was so good it left Ferdinand “screaming”, with the former defender telling BT Sport: “This pass from Luka Modric is why I lost my voice today!

“That’s illegal, that. 

“I was screaming, Luka, Muka, whatever his name was. Phenomenal.”

Prem clubs battle for Bremer

Liverpool have reportedly waded into the fray to sign Torino defender Gleison Bremer along with Manchester United and Arsenal.

And the Reds are willing to part with £25milllion to pip their Premier League rivals to the 25-year-old’s signature, according to Tuttojuve.

The Brazilian has made 29 appearances for the Serie A side this season, chipping in with three goals and an assist along the way.

His assured performances have caught the attention of Europe’s biggest clubs including Juventus and Bayern Munich.

But Arsenal, United, Chelsea, and now Liverpool are keen on bringing the defensive stalwart to the Prem this summer.

Blue trouble

Chelsea and Manchester City yobs had to be separated by riot police as they fought in Madrid.

The shocking scenes unfolded in Plaza Mayor square in the Spanish capital on Tuesday.

A total of 8,000 supporters were expected to travel from England to Spain to watch the Champions League quarter-final showdowns.

Chelsea faced Real Madrid in the Bernabeu on Tuesday, 24 hours before City’s second leg at Atletico’s Wanda Metropolitano.

And video footage posted on social media showed rival followers confronting one another, shouting and chanting.

Then things spilt over as punches were thrown and drinks flew before the notoriously heavy-handed Madrid police rushed in with batons and shields to restore order.

Morning, Chelsea fans

Chelsea will be waking up this morning surely more devastated than they’ve ever been by a brilliant victory.

The Champions League holders crashed out of the quarter-finals 5-4 on aggregate despite a 3-2 extra time win in Real Madrid.

Manager Thomas Tuchel has never looked more frustrated or animated than he did last night as the unlucky Blues wasted their superiority and string of decent chances.

Mason Mount’s superb curler, Antonio Rudiger’s thudding header and Timo Werner’s neat finish put the Blues 3-up on the night, 4-3 ahead overall.following their 3-1 first-leg loss

But Real sub Rodrygo earned extra time with a classy volley following  a magical pass from Luka Modric, before  Karim Benzema clinched the Spaniards’ fortunate success.

 As for the Chelsea buy-out situation, bidder Tom Ricketts has recruited Indian beer baron Karan Bilimoria to help his efforts.

Blues’ fan Lord Bilimoria founded Cobra lager from his flat in Fulham 30 years ago.

The deadline for final offers for £3billion-rated Chelsea is tomorrow.

Liverpool could join Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal in a £68million summer hunt for Benfica strike sensation Darwin Nunez.

And Arsenal legend Jack Wilshere has hailed Blues and United target Declan Rice as the world’s BEST defensive midfielder.

Cheeky bid for World Cup place?

England’s forgotten man for four years, Ruben Loftus-Cheek might just be timing a late World Cup run to perfection, writes OSCAR PAUL.

And you can bet he’s one of the few buzzing that it’s this winter rather than next summer.

Chances are that he would not make it if it was in July.

Yet what we do know is that Gareth Southgate was a massive fan.

And certainly on tonight’s evidence, it would come as no surprise if the England boss had again started pencilling his name down a couple of lists here and there.

There is plenty more work to do if Loftus-Cheek, 26, is to force his way on to the plane for Qatar.

But with seven months to go, time is on his side — and his form is undoubtedly now heading in the right direction.

FULL VERDICT ON RLC

Sub ratings

Christian Pulisic (for Werner, 83′) – 5

Had two golden chances to win it late on in normal time but twice volleyed over the bar from close range.

Hakim Ziyech (for Kante, 100′) – 4

Booked not long after coming on and did not make the impact Tuchel hoped for when he decided to bring him on.

Jorginho (for Kovacic, 105′) – 6

Saw plenty of the ball but was unable to create anything with Real sitting deep in defence for the second half of extra-time.

Ball fell to him nicely twice in the box but his first effort was blocked and the second he dragged wide.

Saul Niguez (for Loftud-Cheek, 105′) – 4

Like Jorginho he came on at a time of desperation for Chelsea but failed to influence the game in any capacity.