Striker Romelu Lukaku will not show up when the Chelsea owner wants to reverse the 3-1 deficit against Real Madrid in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Substitute in the first game, Loukakou has not recovered from the injury of Achilles that kept him apart from Saturday’s 6-0 victory in the Premier League in Southampton. Cesar Azpilicueta traveled to Spain after losing the match to Southampton after a positive Covid test. Average Ross Barkley is out due to illness. Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ben Chilwell remain on the sidelines with back and knee injuries respectively. The winners will face Manchester City or Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals, with City leading 1-0 ahead of Wednesday’s second leg in Spain. Chelsea lost 3-1 to Napoli in the first leg of the last 16 last season, but advanced to the quarter-finals 5-4 overall. “Chelsea lost 3-1 to Napoli and then came back,” said Chelsea midfielder Matteo Kovacic. Football is always amazing and we have to be over 100%. Regarding the defeat by Real in the first game, he said: “We did not play our best game and our result is not good, but there is hope and we are motivated to show our best self.” This will be Chelsea’s first game at the Bernabeu in European competitions. When they met Real in the semi-finals last season, Real hosted their home match at the Alfredo Di Stefano Stadium due to reconstruction work at the Bernabeu. Karim Benzema scored a hat-trick in Real Madrid’s 3-1 victory in the first match
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Chelsea have scored just once more than two away goals in the Champions League knockout stages, beating Liverpool 3-1 in 2008-09. Karim Benzema has scored 11 goals for Real Madrid in the Champions League this season, most of them from a Frenchman in a single season in the history of the European Cup / Champions League. Real coach Carlo Ancelotti wants to qualify for the Champions League semi-finals for the eighth time – the most common coach in the history of the tournament, along with Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho (eight). Real have moved on from nine of their last 10 draws in the knockout stages of the Champions League when they won their first away game, with their only dismissal in this scenario coming against Ajax in 2018-19 (2-1 away). , 1-4 at home). ).
