Thomas Tuchel wasn’t getting carried away after Chelsea secured their place in the Champions League semi finals on Tuesday evening.
The Blues’ 2-1 aggregate win has put them through to the last four of the competition for the first time since 201 and has got some, but not all, fans dreaming again of a repeat of the famous Munich night in 2012.
That’s some way off for now but Tuchel has taken a team that was on its knees in the final days of the Frank Lampard regime, pulled them together and have lost only twice since the German took office.
One of those was on Tuesday night in Seville but Mehdi Taremi’s spectacular 93rd minute winner came far too late for Porto and their manager Sergio Conceicao.
Tuchel has opted to go with experience for the vast majority of his 18 games since taking over when compared to the youthful exuberance of Lampard’s teams.
Not that he hasn’t completely ditched the younger players at all with Reece James and Mason Mount still regulars in the side. Andreas Christensen isn’t exactly old at 24 and has emerged once again since Tuchel’s arrival, Christian Pulisic at 22 is at a good age as well.
The blend of youth and experience is something that Tuchel will be relying on with Chelsea scheduled to play at least ten more games between now and the end of the 2020/21 season. It could be 12 if they reach the Champions League and FA Cup finals in May.
Tuchel hasn’t often referred to Chelsea’s younger group of players since he took over from Lampard but for the first time on Tuesday, he did.
“Now we have made this experience together,” he said.
“Now we share a nice evening together with the whole group. They will feel deserved. It is well deserved how much input they gave and we are very happy to be in the last four.
“When we need to turn it around we cannot rely on the biggest experience, but we can rely on a hard-working young group and hopefully we will stay adventurous and brave enough to accept a big challenge, it will be a big one coming.
“We want a young team to turn it around. What a young team can do is run, fight and hang in there. It is an adventure for them. It is a big step to be here.”
Only Mateo Kovacic has experience in the current squad of Chelsea players that has won the Champions League, having done so with Real Madrid in 2017/18. For the vast majority of this group of players, a semi final of the premier club cup competition in Europe is unknown territory.
Tuchel has instilled a hard-working ethics into his Chelsea players, who looked like they had given up the ghost in the latter days of Lampard’s reign.
The results speak for themselves with the team firmly in the chase for the top four, through to a Champions League semi final and facing an FA Cup semi against Manchester City this weekend.
The Blues’ strength in depth will be needed, somewhat dented by the loss of Kovacic to a hamstring injury, but Tuchel has got his young(ish) group all facing in the right direction.
