Preview
Actual Madrid will make the journey to London in April to tackle Premier League membership Chelsea within the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League.
Will probably be no simple sport for Los Blancos however with the likes of Manchester Metropolis, Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid all nonetheless within the competitors, they have been virtually assured a not really easy path to the following stage.
The 2 sides met within the semi-finals of final seasons competitors the place Chelsea emerged as 3-1 winners on mixture. Carlo Ancelotti’s aspect shall be on the lookout for revenge for that defeat however are up in opposition to it in opposition to a Chelsea aspect who’ve been extraordinarily strong at Stamford Bridge this season underneath supervisor Thomas Tuchel.
Prediction
Chelsea: Having the house benefit within the first leg of this quarter-final tie, Chelsea are unsurprisingly the favourites and are priced at simply shy of Evens.
Tuchel’s aspect progressed to this stage following a 4-1 mixture win in opposition to Ligue 1 aspect Lille within the earlier spherical, popping out as 2-0 winners at Stamford Bridge within the first leg – the identical rating as when the London membership hosted Madrid in final season’s competitors.
Chelsea have misplaced simply as soon as at dwelling within the Premier League this season and solely Liverpool have conceded fewer objectives on dwelling turf. Additionally they have the third highest aim tally in dwelling video games within the Premier League, emphasising how a lot of a tricky sport this shall be for Madrid on sixth April.
In addition to the house benefit on this sport, Chelsea are defending their title after beating Premier League rivals Manchester Metropolis 1-0 in Porto final season. That was to be their second UEFA Champions League victory with the opposite being again in 2012 once they beat Bundesliga aspect Bayern Munich on penalties within the ultimate.
The potential for claiming back-to-back Champions League titles ought to give Chelsea a big enhance heading into each sport this 12 months. That feat has solely been achieved beforehand by Tuesday’s opponents who gained the competitors in 2016 and 2017. Though, AC Milan did win back-to-back titles within the late eighties/early ninties once they match was generally known as the European Cup.
Actual Madrid: A number of weeks in the past, is was trying seemingly that Actual’s Champions League marketing campaign this season could be coming to an finish. Los Blancos have been 1-0 down on mixture heading into the second leg of their Spherical of 16 conflict with French giants PSG however have been the slight favourites with the house benefit.
Nonetheless, Carlo Ancelotti’s aspect confirmed their high quality in entrance of dwelling followers on the Bernabeu with Benzema bagging a hat-trick to ship his aspect via to the quarters with a 3-2 mixture win.
If Actual can brush previous PSG with the likes of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Mbappe within the aspect then they’ve a very good probability in opposition to any group on this planet. That’s particularly the case if Benzema continues his kind in entrance of aim. The Frenchman has netted eight occasions within the Champions League this season for Actual Madrid with solely Lewandowski and Ajax’s Haller scoring extra. Kids Federico Valverde and Eduardo Camavinga additionally performed an enormous half in Madrid win in opposition to Paris and so they each might want to proceed to be at their greatest to progress on this match.
Prediction: This can be a robust one to name. It’s extraordinarily tough to wager in opposition to Chelsea underneath Tuchel as they merely don’t lose many video games. Nonetheless, if Actual Madrid are in high kind, you possibly can see them bagging a aim or two.
1-1 is the prediction on this sport with Chelsea making an attempt to retain possession and maintaining the guests possibilities to a minimal however finally, we anticipate either side to discover a approach via as a result of high quality of their gamers.