“That’ll teach him a lesson” – Agbonlahor accuses Chelsea’s Edouard Mendy of being ‘casual’ during build-up to costly error against Real Madrid

Former Aston Villa striker Gabby Agbonlahor criticized Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy. He said the keeper was far too casual in the leadup to his error which gifted Real Madrid a goal in their Champions League quarter-final first leg tie.

Chelsea found themselves two goals down inside 25 minutes against the Spanish champions, thanks to a couple of wonderful headers from Karim Benzema. Kai Havertz pulled one back just before half-time to give the Stamford Bridge crowd hope, but just after half-time, disaster struck for the home side.

Under seemingly no danger at all, the Senegalese goalkeeper underhit a pass to Antonio Rudiger while 35 yards off goal. This allowed Benzema to nip in and put the ball into a vacant net to seal his incredible hat-trick. That wrapped up the game for Los Blancos.

Chelsea fans were quick to defend the 30-year-old keeper on Twitter, stating how important he has been for the west London side since his arrival in 2020.

However, when asked about the incident on TalkSport, Agbonlahor believed that Mendy 'deserved' what happened to him, stating:

“Some of these keepers deserve it, they're trying to be so casual and Rudiger's tackle as well from the bad pass. But keepers are trying to be so casual nowadays, he deserves it that'll teach him a lesson.

The Senegalese shot-stopper arrived at Chelsea in September 2020 and has been sensational for the club since. In his maiden Premier League season, Mendy kept an impressive 16 clean sheets in 31 games, conceding just 25 goals. However, the icing on the cake was his incredible nine clean sheets in 12 Champions League games, which helped win the Blues their second European title.

The 30-year-old has been decent between the sticks this season, but such errors in such high-stakes games are definitely unwarranted. Chelsea fans will be hoping that he will be back to his best in the second leg.

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Chelsea goalkeeper Mendy defended by Thibaut Courtois

Former Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has also defended Mendy following last night's gaffe, claiming the Blues' number one has been immense since his arrival.

The Madrid keeper, who was booed throughout the evening following his departure from the Premier League club in 2018, said the following to BT Sport (as quoted by Metro):

"Yeah, that’s unfortunate."

The Belgian number one continued to say:

"There are things that happen unfortunately in football for us goalkeepers, you miss a pass there’s no one behind you who can save it."

"He gave Chelsea a lot of points last year, he helped them to win the Champions League, so I don’t think they will blame him too much"

"But I understand for him it will be a hard evening but he will bounce back."

Courtois claimed the negative reaction he received didn't surprise him, saying:

"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 care about the special moments here at the Bridge, two leagues, it’s not easy to win two Premier Leagues in four years, so I’m happy for that and the moments here, so what happened today, I don’t take it too much.