Chelsea beat West Ham United in the Premier League to secure the fourth spot on the table and now they must quickly shift their focus to Europe.
The Blues take on Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final this week and according to manager Thomas Tuchel, his side have gotten a relatively small window to rest themselves given the gravitas of the first leg and the fact that Real Madrid happen to be in such fine form.
“He has an incredible record in the Champions League, winning it three times in a row is pretty much impossible,” said the Chelsea boss, as quoted by Football London. “If you arrive in a semi-final you arrive at pretty much the highest level in European football and to play against Real Madrid can’t be harder.
“They are the most experienced team in this competition and they will play these games with full confidence and awareness.
“They are 16 games unbeaten, or something like this, but we will arrive with full confidence and with a true inner belief because we’ve won crucial matches and had big results in the FA Cup, Premier League and Champions League. I hope we can play adventurous, aggressive and intensive football.
“We will fight them hard and let’s see who gets the win from the two games. It’s a big challenge and after it, we will be smarter and better. It will be a huge experience for us together and we are happy to arrive at this situation, at this level.”
“This is what you dream about when you’re a little boy, you dream about games against Real Madrid, no doubt.
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“It’s there and there is a little problem that we only have two days between two away games, so we need to focus on our recovery very, very well and very carefully to make sure we arrive at full fitness mentally and physically. We want to match Real and give them a tough fight.”
Chelsea had to sweat it out against the Hammers on Saturday so we can understand why fatigue is a concern for Thomas Tuchel at the moment.
Also, Real Madrid have been in peak form this year with their previous defeat coming against Levante on the 30th of January. So naturally, it will be an uphill task for the Blues to be the better side all throughout the first leg.
Thankfully, the saving grace for Tuchel is that he as an almost fully fit squad to choose from on Tuesday so if he wants, the manager can make a string of changes to his staring line-up without compromising too much on quality.
