Chelsea’s homegrown stars shine in Viking funeral for Abramovich era | Barney Ronay

Champions League defeat at the Bernabéu was a gladiatorial spectacle where the visitors left everything out on the field

How do you kill that which cannot be killed? Sanctioned, escrowed, hawked about the place like a bag of meat in a country pub: but still that self‑fuelling, indissoluble substance that is Chelsea Football Club continued to roll along on an extraordinary night at the Bernabéu.

There was defeat with honour for Chelsea here, a 3-2 win over 120 thrilling, gruelling, relentlessly high‑craft minutes that translated into a 5-4 loss on aggregate. But the numbers hardly told the story, on an evening that felt also like a kind of farewell, a Viking funeral for an undeniably glorious part of this club’s history.