Chelsea left-back Marcos Alonso has agreed with Premier League legend Sergio Aguero that there are no favourites for the Champions League clash against Real Madrid. He has also sent a further warning to Toni Kroos, who backed Los Blancos to knock out the current European and world champions this time round.
Both teams are heading into the rematch of last season's Champions League semi-final in very different form. Carlo Ancelotti is under massive pressure in the Spanish capital after the most recent El Clasico thrashing coupled with handling of certain players like Eden Hazard and Luka Jovic has led for certain calls to change the former Chelsea manager. Meanwhile, since the sanctions were handed to the Blues, the current world and European champions have strung together six wins on the bounce in all competitions, which has them as favourites to progress from the Champions League quarter-final.
Despite this, Thomas Tuchel says the task ahead is a difficult one for his side, who have seen Los Blancos' resilience after they overturned a first-leg deficit to knock out Mauricio Pochettino's Paris Saint-Germain side. "Tough one. The challenge cannot be much higher than playing the second leg in Bernabeu with spectators [as things stand]. It's a big challenge, but it's also a big excitement around this match, around this fixture. So we know what's coming and it will be an exciting match and a tough challenge," he revealed ahead of Middlesbrough.
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Thankfully, despite the initial fears of having no supporter present for the Stamford Bridge leg, the government have updated their license to an extent whereby supporters can purchase tickets for this showpiece event.
"All of the Champions League quarter-finals will be very close matches. These are the eight best teams in Europe and anything can happen. You could have guessed from the start that these eight teams will have been the ones in the quarterfinals, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Benfica, Atletico Madrid and Villarreal," the Argentine told Stake.com.
"There are no easy matches in the Champions League and even less so in these knockout ties. All the teams are heavy-hitters and from now on, every game will be played with the importance of a final. Every team needs to focus through the whole 180 minutes and avoid any mistakes to make it through to the next round.
"There are plenty of examples to draw from, like when PSG played Real Madrid, PSG dominated for most of the time in both legs, but lost it in the last few minutes and were knocked out." All the teams are full of brilliant players that know how to turn things around in very short period of time and that makes a lot of the ties even matches, so it’s just too hard to call who is going to be able to progress."
Fast forward a day and Alonso has echoed these views but has also issued a warning to Kroos in the process, reiterating that if the Blues are able to do things the same way, then it will give them a better chance of progressing.
"We already showed last year what we are capable of. It's a different year, another moment, but we're facing two great teams and we'll try to give everything to reach the semi-finals," the left-back told Spanish outlet Diario AS.
"I think there are no favourites. At this point, any team is complicated and it will be a beautiful and difficult tie for sure. Let's leave it there, at 50% chance for each.
"We were a very balanced team. In these close qualifiers, the little details make the difference. We were a team in every way. We defended very well, we were an uncomfortable team to play with, we defended all eleven and the small details made the difference. At this point in the Champions League everything is very even and it depends on very small details."
He then added on Real Madrid individually after what they did last time out against Paris Saint-Germain: "I knew from before the tie that Madrid was a very dangerous team. As superior as PSG were for much of the tie, you can never give Madrid up for dead. Of course, it's always difficult to face Real Madrid at any time and especially in a competition like the Champions League."
