Thomas Tuchel says Chelsea must ‘learn’ from their defeat to Real Madrid as the club look to turnaround their Champions League quarter-final tie.
Chelsea will be looking to become just the second team in Champions League history to progress after losing the first leg at home by two or more goals, after Karim Benzema’s hat-trick inspired Real Madrid to a 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge.
Tuchel has talked down his team’s hopes of a comeback against the Spanish giants, but says Chelsea must learn lessons from their loss last week to have any chance of turning the tie around at the Bernabeu.
“We need absolutely to learn from last week’s game,” Tuchel said at his pre-match press conference.
“This is the beauty of the competition on this stage, that you have two matches at very short notice, so you can learn from games and you can use pictures and moments and situations from the first leg to learn for the second leg. This is what we try to do and this is what we will use in the preparation for this match.”
Tuchel opened up on how his side struggled during the first leg defeat to Real Madrid, believing his side were physically second-best to the Spaniards.
The German believes the relentless demands of the Premier League and failure to fall in line with the rest of Europe in permitting five substitutions this season were factors in Chelsea’s inability to compete at Stamford Bridge.
“First of all it was like this, we wanted it more physical. We did not work hard enough, we were not intense enough in the first match.
“Second of all we face a huge disadvantage in terms of physicality, because Real Madrid has a whole year with five changes, we play in the most demanding league and we play the most matches throughout the season and throughout 2022. So it’s not always easy to play a physical game.
“We are a team that needs the physicality, the sharpness and the commitment and the investment to be a special team. We could not implement that enough in the last match. This was also due to their quality and their capacity to slow the game down, to control the match by ball possession. This is what it is.”
Tuchel spoke further on the Blues’ approach tomorrow evening and insisted his side must first leave ‘everything on the pitch’ before dreaming of a remarkable comeback.
“By not accepting it and by leaving everything on the pitch that we have and by showing that we can work harder, that we can play better, that we know that we can take more risks and that we show our true face and live up to our full potential. That’s what we should do first and then we accept what comes after.”
