Real Madrid have released their squad to take on Chelsea in the first-leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday evening. The 13-time winners of the competition will be looking to get revenge on the Blues after last season's semi-final.
Los Blancos' squad is as follows: Courtois, Lunin, Fuidias; Carvajal, Militao, Alaba, Vallejo, Nacho, Marcelo, Mendy; Kroos, Modric, Casemiro, Valverde, Vazquez, Ceballos, Camavinga; Bale, Asensio, Benzema, Vinicius, Rodrygo, Mariano.
However, Carlo Ancelotti is reportedly a doubt for Wednesday's match in London, with the former Chelsea boss still hampered by Covid-19. Ancelotti is said to be fine, but he is still returning positive tests, meaning he could be absent for the first-leg at Stamford Bridge.
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Meanwhile, Chelsea will be looking to take one step closer to retaining their European crown after the club won it for the second time in its history last season. Thomas Tuchel, though, knows all too well about the threat Real Madrid pose.
Speaking once the draw was confirmed last month, the Chelsea boss said this: "It's a tough draw. A challenge cannot be much higher than playing at the Santiago Bernabeu with spectators."
Chelsea will have confidence going into the tie, though, after the Blues beat Los Blancos 3-1 - on aggregate - in the semi-finals of the Champions League last season. Tuchel will be desperate for his side to bounce back after they were surprisingly beaten by Brentford at the weekend.
The German was asked whether his side somewhat overlooked the Bees with the Champions League clash on the horizon. He denied those claims, though, saying: "Maybe if we lost 1-0 or 2-0, or starting too late. But this was not the case.
"We struggled in the beginning but I felt us more tired mentally. Not fresh enough. This is normal. Yesterday, we were wearing gloves and it was snowing in training.
"Today, it was very, very warm. Again, it's more difficult for us than them to play as the underdog and be well prepared for this match. We are well prepared but are in one half of a training session.
"It is more difficult, but in the context of all this I am ok with the first half. The half-time speech was like this.
"A reminder to keep on going, a reminder of where the spaces are, where we want to accelerate, where we want to stay patient, where we want to take more risks and it would come with more fluidity. And it did. We started very well.
"I did not see the distraction there so why should we be distracted and think about Real Madrid when we are one goal ahead. Maybe it was the general feeling that now we are ahead and have it, and we got punished for that."
