UEFA Champions League: Re-verification at Stamford Bridge | Sports

Real Madrid and Chelsea found themselves in a situation like this last year, a new Champions League match like the one that starts on Wednesday at Stamford Bridge (9:00pm, Movistar Champions League), then also a test for both, although their meanings are different in each condition. This time is very similar to it, but it is not the same, although it also plays under the influence of external factors that can have tremendous weight. If the pandemic ruled last year with its empty stadiums, masks and fears, this season Chelsea have been shaken by the force of the war started by Russia and have left the club shivering with uncertainty. On the flip side, the coronavirus, which kept Carlo Ancelotti confined in Madrid on Tuesday, with PCR a day, is still hopeful that this Wednesday’s test will be negative and he can travel to London.

Thibaut Courtois, Real Madrid’s only voice in the media preview, tried to play down the importance of playing the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final without the coach on the bench: “We are lucky because the second is his son, and she is pretty similar.” In the last training session, David Ancelotti spoke on the field at Stamford Bridge surrounded by the players, his father was always in the background, as Courtois recalled: “Sometimes he was involved in a video chat. And they have a good technical team that did a very good job in Vigo”.

In any case, both the goalkeeper and the team’s voices heard in recent days agree on the key factor they believe should permeate his performance on Wednesday: ‘Intensity’, as Courtois described. “The good thing is We played against them last year and we know where we failedThe echoes of that elimination last May still hover over the team and the name that, to make up for what they lack, repeats as the new in the eleven: Fede Valverde.

On the other hand, Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel promised a “very physical” confrontation, and said that these two highly anticipated matches against Madrid “have nothing to do with last year”. He emphasized that he did not even review them because it is a different team and a different coach. By that time, in addition, he was already almost in dents due to injuries. More than he did in Madrid, Tuchel appears busy dispelling doubts about Saturday’s home defeat to Brentford (1-4) and dispelling concerns about the emergence of a new owner who will demand of him “a strong team, confidence and support”.

In addition, he spoke of Madrid as a rival in decline, a very similar and very successful team for a long time: “It is normal that the courses change,” he said.

For Real Madrid, the draw is not so much a rematch as a stress test for their future direction, against a strong, fast-paced side that has already exploited the fatigue of aging once.

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