Thibaut Courtois gave Karim Benzema tactical instruction over hostile Chelsea crowd

dailystar.co.uk:

Chelsea. Real Madrid ran out 3-1 winners over the European champions in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final last Wednesday, with captain Benzema scoring all three goals.

Prior to kick-off, former Blues keeper Courtois was booed and jeered by a section of the crowd at Stamford Bridge.This caused the Belgium international to request that Benzema switch ends during the coin toss so that he would be in front of the Matthew Harding Stand in the first half.That stand is seen as the main end at Stamford Bridge and was where the fans jeering Courtois prior to kick-off were located.Courtois also knew from his seven years as a Chelsea player that the club like to attack that stand during the second half, according to The Athletic.Instead, Chelsea were forced to attack it in the opening half after Courtois instructed Benzema to request a change of ends and Los Blancos reaped the rewards.Benzema's second consecutive hat-trick gave the Spanish giants a comfortable away victory to defend at home in this week's second leg and leave Chelsea on the brink of elimination.Who will win the Champions League this season?

Let us know in the comments section below.Courtois was unable to keep a clean sheet in front of the Matthew Harding Stand, with Kai Havertz's 40th minute header leaving Chelsea with a glimmer of hope ahead of the second leg.Speaking to BT Sport after the match, Courtois discussed the jeers, explaining: "Obviously I knew it wouldn't be friendly, especially in the stadium.

Maybe if you see some people outside the ground they will be more friendly."It's obviously part of football, that's unfortunate because how they painted my departure was not how it went through."But I'm happy with the result and I will always.