We can still dream: Tuchel
Chelsea need 'fantastic script' against Real with Champions League q-final exit looming
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MADRID • With just seven games left and a commanding 12-point lead at the top of La Liga, Real Madrid are coasting to the Spanish title this season.
The hosts are also on course for their second straight appearance in the Champions League semi-finals, unless holders Chelsea can summon a comeback at the Santiago Bernabeu today.
Although the Blues appear to be over their blip following a 6-0 thrashing of Southampton in the Premier League last weekend, Real away will be a different proposition.
Chelsea's 3-1 defeat in the first leg of their quarter-final tie at Stamford Bridge last week means they are facing an uphill task, with manager Thomas Tuchel yesterday admitting nothing short of perfection is required today.
At his pre-match press conference, the German said: "It is one of the biggest challenges to perform away at the Bernabeu. It is even more difficult if you have to earn a certain result, if you need to win with a minimum of two goals or better or maybe a three-goal difference, that makes it almost impossible and very, very difficult but still it is worth trying.
"We need nothing else than a fantastic script if we want to overcome this. The task is incredibly high and the challenge is incredibly high given the circumstances of the first leg, and where we play and against whom we play and at what stage we play this match.
"It's always allowed to dream and it is sometimes important to imagine things and to dream about it but it will not shift the focus from the fact that we need to deliver and we need to be ready tomorrow."
Tuchel added there was a "huge disadvantage" in terms of freshness levels as the 13-time European Cup winners have been able to make five substitutions throughout their domestic season.
English top-flight teams will be able to do that only next season. They have been able to make only three changes, enabling Karim Benzema to take advantage of tired legs as the France striker nabbed a hat-trick last week.
Real will be without the suspended Eder Militao and the injured Eden Hazard, while Romelu Lukaku, Ben Chilwell, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ross Barkley were not on Chelsea's travelling list.
In today's other quarter-final second leg, Bayern Munich must also overturn a deficit, albeit by just one goal to Villarreal, if they are to advance to the last four.
Coach Julian Nagelsmann has vowed his players, who are on the verge of a 10th straight Bundesliga title, will "settle the score on Tuesday". The Yellow Submarine are seeking to match their best run in this competition when they reached the 2005-06 semi-finals and Unai Emery is ready for "the biggest challenge" of his career.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
REAL MADRID V CHELSEA
Singtel TV Ch128 & StarHub Ch214, tomorrow, 2.55am
BAYERN V VILLARREAL
Ch129 & Ch215, tomorrow, 2.55am
