Loftus-Cheek certain Chelsea will feel proud of performance against Real Madrid ... eventually

The overriding feeling from Tuesday night’s near-historic win at the Bernabéu against Real Madrid may be disappointment right now, but Ruben Loftus-Cheek believes that eventually we will look back on our efforts with proper pride.

To come to within touching distance of the finishing line only to stumble and fall short is certainly not an easy thing to take — nor should it be — but once we can look back a bit further removed with a bit more hindsight, we can probably ignore any such negatives and focus purely on the positives of the performance. And there were plenty of those, including Loftus-Cheek himself, who lined up again (just as against Southampton in the game prior) as a sort-of hybrid wing-back/midfielder and did very well indeed before running out of legs late on.

“We had full belief that we could pull the tie back and I think that showed in our performance, because we were excellent for the most part.

“To bring the game back and have it in our hands only for it to be taken away from us is very disappointing. We are proud of our performance but the overriding feeling in the dressing room is definitely one of disappointment because of the start we had.

“[We] can feel proud. The disappointment will be at the forefront right now because it’s fresh and it’s hard to take that we’re out of the Champions League having played so well. Once things blow over, I think we will all feel proud for the way we’ve performed. It’s just hard to take right now.”

That said, there is little time to mope about and even less benefit to doing so. In fact, we’ve got to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get right back into the swing of things this weekend, with a date at Wembley against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup semifinals.

Not quite as glamorous as Real Madrid, but a game that we will be expected to win. booking our fifth FA Cup final in the last six years.

“We’ve got another big game just around the corner to prepare for, an FA Cup semi-final, and we have to be ready for that.

“[We] can’t afford to have our minds on other things. We will stay tight as group and that’s why we are able to focus on the task ahead and putting in strong performances like we’ve shown recently.”

-Ruben Loftus-Cheek; source: Chelsea FC

So say we all.