Thomas Tuchel has demanded a "better atmosphere" from the Chelsea supporters for their UEFA Champions League quarter-final first-leg against Real Madrid on Wednesday. The Blues were beaten 4-1 by Brentford on Saturday afternoon and Tuchel has described the atmosphere at Stamford Bridge as "bizarre".
"It was a bit bizarre. We need better atmosphere against Real Madrid. In the first-half, it felt a bit like a friendly match," the Chelsea boss said to the media after the match.
It was clear Tuchel wasn't pleased with the match and the atmosphere, or lack of, being generated from the home crowd. However, the players didn't give the fans too much to shout about, bar Antonio Rudiger's superb goal at the start of the second-half.
READ MORE: Every word Thomas Tuchel said on Chelsea vs Brentford, Rudiger, Mendy, Real Madrid and more
With Chelsea welcoming Real Madrid to west London on Wednesday evening in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, Tuchel has now issued a rallying cry to the fans. The result on Saturday could have been the result of the Blues players having one eye trained on Wednesday's match.
Tuchel, though, played that down. He said: "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."
