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Football London
Football London
Sport
Bobby Vincent

N'Golo Kante's huge Chelsea role after Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool failure shows Real Madrid lesson

When you look across the Real Madrid team, it's absolutely full of stars. It's the way the Spanish club have been for as long as you can remember.

So when Chelsea take on Los Blancos in the first-leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday evening, everyone at the west London club are aware of the immensely difficult task that awaits them. Madrid's midfield in particular is full of world-class talent.

Everywhere you look, you're impressed. Toni Kroos and Luka Modric; two veterans of football who have won it all and continue to impress on the elite stage. Then you have the younger generation of Aurelien Tchouameni, Federico Valverde and Eduardo Camavinga. It's extremely tricky to know which midfield three Carlo Ancelotti will go with on Wednesday evening.

READ MORE: Thiago Silva shock, N'Golo Kante return – Chelsea changes Frank Lampard may make vs Real Madrid

One man, though, who is in serious contention is Camavinga. The 20-year-old midfielder massively impressed in both legs of Real Madrid's last round against Liverpool. It was the first-leg at Anfield where Camavinga absolutely ran the show for Los Blancos, who won 5-2 on the night despite the Reds going 2-0 up early on.

The France international attempted 53 passes on the night with 47 of them successful. He played in the No.6 role in a midfield three with Modric and Valverde either side of him.

The role he was given by Ancelotti was to drop in and almost be another centre-back when the visitors were in possession, so that way he wouldn't be as impacted by Liverpool's high press. Camavinga did an exceptional job at finding space in what was a congested midfield battle and use the ball to affect.

If that is indeed his role against Chelsea, should he be chosen, then the Blues will need to find a way to deal with him otherwise he is likely to dictate the play as well as he did against Liverpool. N'Golo Kante, Chelsea's pressing machine, is going to be crucial in this.

Kante returned to action against Aston Villa at the start of April which was his first outing in a competitive game for over seven months. Frank Lampard chose to rest the Frenchman for Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Wolves so everything would suggest Kante is in line for a start at the Santiago Bernabeu.

In the 69 minutes he got against Liverpool last week, in what was his first start since returning, Kante showed exactly what Chelsea had been missing for the majority of the season. He pressed well, drove the ball forward superbly and even helped build some attacks from the hosts at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea will need Kante at his absolute best in the pressing department to help break what has been such a successful Real Madrid midfield. The brilliance of the three, combined with the magic from the likes of Vinicius Jr and Karim Benzema, meant they thrashed Liverpool in the Round of 16.

There are of course a number of players Lampard and Chelsea will have been doing their homework on to prepare for Real Madrid but the brilliance of Camavinga cannot be understated. The Blues will need to get close to Madrid's midfield because they're that good that if you don't get near them, then they will take the game away from you at any given moment.

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