Thomas Tuchel’s men face an uphill battle against Real Madrid on Tuesday night, hoping to come back from a 3-1 deficit to continue their the defence of their Champions League crown.
Welcome to football london’s live coverage of Real Madrid vs Chelsea at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. After a confidence-boosting 6-0 win over Southampton on Saturday, Thomas Tuchel aims to spring an unlikely comeback and propel Chelsea to their second consecutive Champions League semi-final.
After a pretty blunt assessment of his players after the first-leg disappointment last Wednesday, Tuchel got the response he was looking for at the weekend with Chelsea hitting six past the Saints without reply. Timo Werner and Mason Mount hit a double as Marcos Alonso, and Kai Havertz rounded out the scoring.
Though as Tuchel stressed post-game, this clash will be very different under the lights with an expectant Los Blancos crowd dreaming of another European crown next month. Last season’s Champions League run was dominated by the Blues taking the lead and shutting out their opponents, and this tie has given Tuchel and his players with a vastly different test.
Last week’s first leg saw a stunning hat-trick from Karim Benzema, who now has 11 Champions League goals in only eight appearances, a truly astounding record marking him as one of Europe’s best. Kai Havertz netted Chelsea’s only goal before half-time with a powerful header. He will again be key to Chelsea’s hopes of recovering something from this tie, scoring six goals in his last seven.
Thomas Tuchel confirmed on Monday that Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ben Chilwell, Ross Barkley and Romelu Lukaku are all out for this clash, with some big selection calls to make for Chelsea’s biggest game of the season so far.
Follow all of the action from the game below with Adam Newson, Scott Trotter and Daniel Childs, who will bring you every moment up to and beyond kick-off at 8pm.
Great opening 45 minutes
One of the best 45 minutes we’ve seen from Chelsea since…Saturday.
But the level of pressing across the pitch, the pace of passing from key areas and movement have been superb and overwhelmed a cautious looking Real Madrid.
And Mason “Big Game” Mount strikes again with a stunning finish to light up the evening.
Just a little bit more bravery in the final third is needed to get that vital second, but you cannot moan that much, Chelsea and Tuchel have hope in this tie.
