Chelsea face ‘incredibly high’ challenge
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel said his team need a "fantastic script" to overturn a two-goal deficit against Real Madrid on Tuesday and qualify for the Champions League semi-finals.
Chelsea's 3-1 defeat in the first leg at Stamford Bridge last week followed a surprise 4-1 home defeat to Brentford in the Premier League, although Chelsea got back on track with a 6-0 thrashing of Southampton this weekend.
"It is one of the biggest challenges to perform away at the Bernabeu," Tuchel said. "We need nothing else than a fantastic script if we want to overcome this. The task is incredibly high," the German said.
Carlo Ancelotti said Real Madrid will not under-estimate Chelsea. "Chelsea are here to bring the fight to us. It will be tough for them of course but they will try. Good teams never give up," Ancelotti said in a press conference.
"I know my players very well," said Ancelotti. "They are well aware of what happened a few weeks ago (against Barca) and what is required tomorrow. We won't be under-estimating anyone. This is a great opportunity to reach the semis but Chelsea are a very good team. We have to respect them."
"It's the only way we can prepare for this game, thinking that Chelsea will be better tomorrow and be ready. There is no other way. We are ready. We know we will have to suffer and we are ready to suffer," Ancelotti added.
Karim Benzema scored a hat-trick against Chelsea last week, with the Frenchman now on 42 goals in 42 games this season.
His scintillating form comes in stark contrast to Chelsea's Romelu Lukaku, who cost the club 115 million euros ($125 million) last summer but has fallen out of favour under Tuchel.
"Karim has to be a modern striker," Ancelotti said. "In the old days strikers would hang around the box and just tap the ball in when they could. Now they have to do more.
"Modern strikers don't just score the tap-ins. They have to defend. They have to fight. In my opinion Karim is the model modern striker."
Meanwhile, Bayern Munich will deliver against Villarreal in their Champions League quarter-final second leg on Tuesday despite a bad first-leg performance because too much is at stake, Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann said on Monday.
The Bavarians suffered their first defeat in the competition this season, losing 1-0 in Spain last week with Villarreal the dominant side after also hitting the woodwork and missing several chances to score more goals.
"We played a bad game and they played their best game," Nagelsmann told a virtual news conference. "This will not happen again, to play badly against the same opponent twice."
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