ACL

It’s an advantage for Real Madrid after beating Chelsea 3-1 within the first leg of their UEFA Champions League (UCL) quarter-final as they bid to keep away from a quarter-final exit for the primary time since 2003/04. But after going two targets down on mixture within the earlier spherical, earlier than beating Paris Saint-Germain, they’ll take nothing with no consideration in opposition to the reigning champions.

They need to nonetheless be assured after successful their final three residence UCL matches and drawing 1-1 right here in opposition to Chelsea within the semi-finals final time period. And with just one defeat throughout their final 9 residence, UCL matches in opposition to English golf equipment (W5, D3), historical past favors ‘Los Blancos’, who took one other step in direction of the La Liga title with Saturday’s 2-0 win over Getafe.

Chelsea supervisor Thomas Tuchel received the response he wanted after a prolonged chocolate-fuelled debrief of their first-leg defeat after they hammered Southampton 6-0 on Saturday. It’s given Chelsea followers at the very least some hope of seeing their facet make a 3rd European semi-final in 4 seasons, even when after the house leg the German mentioned he felt the tie was over.

Encouragingly, that Southampton win was Chelsea’s sixth aggressive away sport in a row by which they netted at the very least twice (W6), the minimal requirement wanted on the Santiago Bernabéu. However, they’ll additionally want to carry agency on the again as though the ‘Blues’ are unbeaten in 4 matches because the nominated away facet in opposition to Spanish opponents (W2, D2), solely a kind of victories was by 2+ targets.

Gamers to observe: At Stamford Bridge, Madrid’s Karim Benzema grew to become the fourth participant to attain back-to-back UCL hat-tricks – he additionally netted in opposition to Chelsea right here final season. Mason Mount, who had a hand in half of Chelsea’s targets in opposition to Southampton, has produced his final eight purpose contributions (G3, A5) away from residence.

Sizzling stat: For the forty-fourth time, a staff makes an attempt to win a UCL knockout tie after shedding the primary leg at residence by at the very least two targets – it’s solely been achieved as soon as earlier than.