Chelsea are on the verge of being knocked out of the Champions League and they will need nothing short of a miracle if they wish to beat Real Madrid in the 2nd leg.
The Blues head to the Bernabeu this week for the 2nd leg of the quarter-finals and the Premier League side will have to turn over a 3-1 deficit if they wish to progress to the next round.
Real Madrid are the overwhelming favourites to win at home but Chelsea will go into this tie with their tails up after beating Southampton 6-0 this weekend. Madrid are no Southampton though so the English side will have to perform much better and their possibilities of making blunders are almost negligible.
Thankfully, Tuchel’s side have a very decent away record as they are unbeaten in nine matches on the road and they will also take a lot of heart from the fact that they were able to knock out Real Madrid from this very same competition last season in the semi-final stage.
Chelsea team news vs Real Madrid:
The Blues will have a few absentees for the 2nd leg, the first major one being Azpilicueta. The defender has recently tested positive which means he will not be available for the trip to Spain.
Against the Saints, Loftus-Cheek played as the right wing-back but in midweek, Reece James will reprise that role.
Christensen had a nightmare scenario against Vinicius Junior so there’s a chance Thomas Tuchel could bring in Trevoh Chalobah as the third central defender alongside Rudiger and Thiago Silva.
N’Golo Kante was chasing shadows in the 1st leg so he has to be dropped this time around in order to bring in Mateo Kovacic as the partner for Jorginho.
Kovacic had an outstanding game against Southampton so he deserves a start against his former side.
Mateo Kovačič has been knocked out of European competition ONCE in the last 7 seasons…
2015/16 – Won Champions League
2016/17 – Won Champions League
2017/18 – Won Champions League
2018/19 – Won Europa League
2019/20 – ❌
2020/21 – Won Champions League
2021/22 – ⏳ pic.twitter.com/fKsEGtqv2J— LDN (@LDNFootbalI) March 18, 2022
Timo Werner scored a brace on Saturday and this performance of his might be enough to land him a place in the starting line up at the Bernabeu. Tuchel has players like Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech as well but we think the manager will go ahead with Werner because he has confidence under his belt.
Romelu Lukaku missed the weekend’s match due to a knock and he is yet to return to training. Tuchel though has refused to hit the panic button claiming that the Belgian still has a lot of time to prove his fitness.
“He [Lukaku] wasn’t in training yesterday, he was in too much pain,” he said after the match.
“There is not a lot of time, we have only two training sessions, and we leave the country on Monday. We need to wait, I have no answer right now.”
Even if Romelu Lukaku is fit and available for selection, he will only find a place on the bench and will possibly come on as a substitute in the second half.
Chelsea predicted line up vs Real Madrid(3-4-2-1):
Goalkeeper: Edouard Mendy
Defence: Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Rudiger
Midfield: Alonso, Mateo Kovacic, Jorginho, Reece James
Attack: Werner, Kai Havertz, Mason Mount
