London (AFP)
Cursed in the face of the goal in 2021, German striker Timo Werner came out of his torpor at the best time Wednesday against Real Madrid (2-0), to silence his detractors and propel Chelsea to the final of the Champions League, to Istanbul.
He had only scored three small goals since the start of 2021, in all competitions, but pushing into the empty cage the small lob of his compatriot Kai Havertz who had bounced off the crossbar (28th), Werner, with a head, erased this sluggishness.
With this goal synonymous with a ticket to the Istanbul final (May 29 against Manchester City), Werner agreed with his trainer Thomas Tuchel: the German technician had decided to renew his confidence in him by establishing him alongside Mason Mount and Havertz (launched in place of Christian Pulisic), despite his average performance in the first leg.
- "He absolutely wants to score" -
"I know that Timo absolutely wants to score. We have to accept that the scorers sometimes miss big chances. It's part of the game," Tuchel explained calmly at a pre-match press conference.
"Timo has not scored but he also has a high intensity in his defensive work. We create enough chances to score goals. For him, that will come with a period of adaptation, when he has more confidence. in him, "he announced.
The prophecy came true in just 28 minutes, with a goal that erased all of his missed opportunities in recent weeks.
In addition to his defensive work always flawless for a striker, Wednesday, Werner multiplied the good interventions and the combinations with his compatriot Havertz, like his first goal in the 18th, canceled for an offside position in the area;
or even this luminous heel towards Mount, whose strike flew off (53rd).
He even led the beautiful counterattack of the "Blues" in the 65th and served N'Golo Kanté on a plateau ... but the latter lost his duel against Thibaut Courtois.
Besides the qualifying goal, this performance will remain as Werner's benchmark match this year.
Recruited last summer in Leipzig, this 25-year-old striker, introduced in his debut as the great scorer for Germany in the 2010s, was initially essential in the "Blues" system under Frank Lampard.
Until the winter, he was even the player most used by the young English technician: out of Chelsea's first 14 games of the season, Werner played 13 games with an average of 87 minutes played per game, and he has been decisive 12 times, with 8 goals and 4 assists.
- Renewing "confidence" -
But since the ousting of Lampard and the arrival of Tuchel at the beginning of January, Werner has gradually died out, eclipsed by the hatching of the Mason Mount nugget ... until Wednesday evening.
To the point where the supporters, who rubbed their hands last summer to see this nugget of German football landed, holder with the "Mannschaft", had begun to regret the 53 million euros spent for a return too low for their liking .
After a silence of almost two months, his victorious goal on April 24 against West Ham (1-0), crucial because it put Chelsea in a favorable position in the race for the next C1, had already appeared as a release.
Wednesday evening, he was at the rendezvous.
And his replacement in the 68th by Christian Pulisic, the first leg scorer, allowed him to offer himself a warm hug with his coach.
Will the “confidence” evoked by Tuchel at a press conference on Tuesday be enough to restore the character of a goleador to this resuscitated Werner?
He will have two great opportunities to prove it: on Saturday against Manchester City in the league, then under the spotlight of the Atatürk stadium in Istanbul during the Champions League grand final against the same opponent on May 29.
© 2021 AFP