In this regard, Tuhel’s harsh words on Wednesday that the draw was not alive have served their purpose. The group has revolted. They reacted immediately with one of their most aggressive appearances of the season, the 6-0 defeat of Southampton. This is the mood with which they now go to the Burnaby. It marks a big difference from how the first leg of the Stamford Bridge ended. Tuhel himself inevitably changed his tone. Where he was distressed, he is now gathering. The Chelsea coach said that his players should not “accept” the exclusion and that they can do it “leaving everything on the pitch we have”. “We know we can take more risks and show our true face; it’s the beauty of the game that everything is possible, always,” he added. Recent years have shown that it is especially possible when teams do not just see the return as a huge task that needs to be scaled up. They have to go step by step, especially since each step changes the state of the game profoundly. This is something that Tuhel has said to his players. Chelsea, in the end, need a 3-0 victory at the Bernabeu to pass, an achievement that usually seemed “impossible”, as the coach said. The whole feeling changes if they manage to score even one goal to reach the total 3-2. Then, it is not something as big as the 3-0 victory at the Bernabeu. It’s just about achieving the next goal after that. It becomes easy to visualize. This is how the Madrilenians played it when they came back from 2-0 against Paris Saint-Germain. This was articulated by Ole Gunnar Solskier before the return of Manchester United against the same team. Kay Haverts scored Chelsea’s 3-1 defeat in the first game at Stamford Bridge. (AP) It is the only way to achieve such an achievement, as Jürgen Klopp found against Barcelona in 2019. This is what Tuchel meant when he said that Chelsea must have “a match where confidence grows in the match with our actions”. However, there is a significant complication to such a plan. This is not Madrid, not even the psychological challenge of doing this in this wonderful stadium, as Tuchel said. “It is one of the biggest challenges to play as a guest at the Bernabeu,” said the Chelsea coach. And it’s even harder if you have to win a certain result, if you have to win by at least two goals or even three goals difference. Recent years have shown that the elite footballers should no longer be intimidated by such images. We are in a new world. It is a reason that UEFA got rid of the rule of away goals. It should also be a consolation for Chelsea that Madrid scored three goals at Stamford Bridge, without those goals meaning what they used to. The biggest complication, however, is the scorer of these goals. Benzema scored all three of his team’s goals as Real Madrid won 3-1 in West London last week (AP) Karim Benzema is in a kind of career where he can undo any game plan in an instant. He can easily do it, so Chelsea have to get four or even five here. It’s a huge challenge to stop him on his own – especially when chasing a toy. Benzema’s goals in the first game ensured that he became only the second player after Cristiano Ronaldo to score a hat-trick in a series of knockout Champions League games. This is symbolic, since he feels that he finally puts him on a similar level with such adults. He is definitely going through one of their seasons and so far he has been the dominant player of this whole season in the Champions League. This raises bigger questions about his career, beyond whether he can really deliver the trophy. This level of performance, after all, is exactly the kind of impact people imagined when they saw Benzema disastrous defenses as a young player in Lyon. It was the career he had to make. No one ever imagines these wunderkinds as side events, after all. It’s supposed to be the main event. This does not mean that it was a mistake for Benzema to act as a supporter of Ronaldo, since we were talking about one of the best players of all time. It is to wonder what his career might have been like if he had been the focus, as he is now. No one could say that about his achievements, of course. Benzema has won four Champions Leagues and is now on his way to his fourth Spanish title. It is more about his position in such achievements and whether he could have more than his own victories. Benzema’s hat-trick in the first game was the second in an equal number of knockout games Champions League (AFP / Getty) It is undoubtedly crucial to a player’s legacy. Diego Maradona has far fewer medals than a great like Paolo Maldini, for example, but one reason why his World Cup is considered bigger than such a draw was the way the Argentine set such glory. It makes the difference. It’s not just the facts. It is also the feeling. This does not mean that Benzema is Maradona’s level, of course. But we are talking about a modern big one, which leads to the second question from last week. Has Benzema always been so good or has he gone to another level? As contradictory as these two points may sound, many people who know the 34-year-old insist that it is a little of both. The talent, after all, has always been there. It was just limited so that Benzema could work in a more collective role. We did not see the full release of his abilities or a player capable of maximizing them. He did other jobs, although of course he did them very well. Benzema is not dependent on anyone else right now. “We are dependent on Benzema,” Carlo Ancelotti said on Monday. This unleashed his game and his talent, but some Madrid sources insist that there was a multiplier effect. It is as if being “the leader” brought him even more, as if he were enjoying responsibility. The Bernabeu will look at Benzema on Tuesday. Chelsea will not be able to look at him. They have to attack, but find a way to keep him quiet at the same time. It requires step by step, in a correct plan. “We need nothing more than a fantastic script,” Tuchel said. Madrid can just have the main actor of the tie and its star at the box office.
