Chelsea dreams, Real is afraid. A match more undecided than it seems for the quarter-final return, this Tuesday at 9 p.m.
Winner 3-1 at Chelsea in the first leg, Real Madrid and Carlo Ancelotti are “willing to suffer” in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, this Tuesday, against the defending champion who will need a “dream scenario”according to Thomas Tuchel.
The Merengues on the defensive
Real expects “to suffer” and his coach Carlo Ancelotti is preparing to undergo the game: “We all know the game will be difficult. […] The only way you can prepare for this game is to think that Chelsea will be better tomorrow and that he will be ready. There are no others. We know we are going to suffer and we are ready to suffer.”
The Brazilian midfielder wants to be a little more optimistic: “It will be a very difficult game, but I think last time we played the best 90 minutes of our season. We cannot afford to be overconfident. They are the defending champions, we have a lot of respect for them.”
A glaring difference with its evening rival, Chelsea, which will, according to its German technician, “to give everything”. “We are not going to give less because it is very unlikely that we will get there. […] You must not accept (elimination) before it’s over. We have to give everything we can on the pitch by using all our potential and we will accept what comes out of it.”
The essential KB9
Carlo Ancelotti can count on Karim Benzema, his ultimate striker. “In the past, strikers stayed in the box to push the ball deep as soon as possible. Today they have to do more. Modern strikers have to attack the defence, they have to fight. In my opinion, Karim is the ‘ultimate modern striker’said the Merengue technician.
Play on “physical intensity”
For Blues coach Thomas Tuchel, “playing as a visiting team at the Bernabeu is one of the biggest challenges ever, (Bernabeu) is also a scene where you can sublimate yourself and you need to sublimate yourself”. To shine, the Londoners will have to bet on the physical intensity which, according to their coach, will be “part of the solution”.
Indeed, in the first leg, the Blues did not “enough work” on this aspect, according to Tuchel. “We are a team that needs this athletic dimension to be special. We struggled with the counter-pressing and the intensity of the races. We will need a more physical match, that will be part of the solution.”
Bayern-Villareal: “We have to punish them”
“We made a lot of mistakes on the first leg. They made one: let us live. And we have to punish them for that.” Bayern Munich missed their Champions League quarter-final first leg at Villareal (1-0 defeat) and their coach Julian Nagelsmann intends to make the Spaniards and former Montpellier goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli regret their lack of realism.
“When we lost a first leg, you shouldn’t joke with us”explained in echo Manuel Neuer, goalkeeper of a Bavarian formation held in check 1-1 during the 8th final first leg in Salzburg, before crushing the Austrians 7-1 on the return.
But Unai Emery’s players are of a different caliber. And, carried by the Argentinian Giovani Lo Celso, they aspire to qualify the “yellow submarine”, in the last four of the C1 for the second time after 2006.
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