Chelsea boss, Thomas Tuchel, has revealed the real reason he benched Lukaku against Crystal Palace in Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final tie.
Tuchel said that he benched Romelu Lukaku during the match because the Belgium international lacks match fitness.
Tuchel opted to start Timo Werner ahead of Lukaku as Chelsea defeated Crystal Palace 2-0 at Wembley Stadium.
Two second-half goals from Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Mason Mount gave Chelsea the victory against Palace.
Explaining why he did not start Lukaku, Tuchel said during his press conference: “He is not fit enough for the intensity of our game in an FA Cup semi-final.
“It is not easy to come into a game such as this with so much riding on it after a spell out with injury.
“It is just a case of him not having as much minutes recently as the other players, his match fitness is not quite there otherwise, there is a big chance that he would have started today.”
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