“It is one of the biggest challenges to perform as the away team at the Bernabéu and it is even more difficult if you have to earn a certain result,” Thomas Tuchel said, sounding very much like a man in need of another marathon chocolate session to raise the mood before Chelsea attempt to pull off one of the unlikeliest comebacks in the history of the Champions League.
On first inspection it seemed Tuchel was raising the white flag again. He had written the tie off after Chelsea lost the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid last week, with their title defence in serious peril following an emphatic 3-1 home defeat, and he kept the talk of heroic comebacks to a minimum before Tuesday tonight’s return game. “If you need to win with a minimum of two goals it makes it almost impossible,” said Tuchel, who briefly appeared on the verge of announcing he was taking the youth team to Spain. “You need to overperform.”
