Chelsea went to Spain last week to play regular Champions League winners Real Madrid, and came home disappointed with a draw.
Such was the dominance of Thomas Tuchel’s team in that game that 1-1 was a let down. Real scored with their only shot on target, while the Blues missed chance after chance on the counter, especially early on.
The back 3 that Zinedine Zidane used to try and protect his team in the absence of Sergio Ramos looked horribly exposed by the pace of Christian Pulisic and Timo Werner.
Injuries also meant that Marcelo had to play at left back, and he looked pretty desperate at times.
No wonder then that Tuchel doubts the Spanish side will use the same strategy again:
“We will wait and see who is in good shape and good form, what shape we play and where we try to hurt them,” he replied when asked by the Chelsea official website about what system he would use.
“I’m not too sure if they will play again with five or go back to four [in defence] so there are many questions but we don’t need the answers now. It’s enough if we have them on Wednesday.”
The reality is that whatever formation they use, we should have the upper hand. At home and with a fresh first team, if we can show the same dominance we did in the early stages last week, we’ll have no problem.
