10 min: Real go back to stroking it around. They’ve enjoyed the lion’s share of possession so far.
8 min: Werner turns on the jets and storms past Ramos down the left. Well, nearly. Ramos just about keeps up and brazenly shoves him off the ball, allowing Courtois to claim. Werner ends up draped over the advertising hoardings. That barge was just on the right side of legal. You’ve got to hand it to him. Sergio Ramos, everyone!
6 min: Now Havertz slides in on Nacho, who goes down screaming. There’s not so much in that one, but Chelsea need to watch themselves here. You sense that one more mistimed challenge by the hosts will result in the game’s first yellow.
5 min: Christensen comes through the back of Hazard, then Kante steps across Kroos. Both of those challenges could have led to a booking, but the referee decides to keep his cards in his pocket for now. Christensen in particular can count himself very fortunate.
3 min: Chilwell dinks a pass down the left to release Werner. The flag goes up for offside and the whistle goes, though Werner looked just on. That’ll give Chelsea some early encouragement.
2 min: Real begin proceedings by stroking the ball around the back in a not particularly comfortable fashion. Eventually they hoick it upfield and let Chelsea have a go.
Real Madrid get the ball rolling. Chelsea are kicking towards the Shed End in this first half.
The teams are out! Chelsea in royal blue, Real in meringue white. A classic look. The rain has eased off, the tension has ramped up. We’ll soon find out who’ll face Manchester City in the 2021 Champions League final. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes, once pennants have been swapped, coins tossed, and Zadok the Priest mangled. It’s on!
Thomas Tuchel has also been speaking to BT. “I don’t think we need a miracle or any crazy stuff. We need our best level of performance. We have trust in ourselves, we arrive self-confident, the best way to arrive. We face a difficult team with a lot of quality and you need a little bit of luck, momentum, little decisions, little situations can decide matches like this. We want a performance on the highest level. I am pretty sure we will need more than 11 players to sneak through today, so it is good for us to have Christian Pulisic on the bench. The challenge is on!”
Chelsea have already got to one Champions League final this season, of course. The Blues will face Barcelona a week on Sunday in the Women’s Champions League final in Gothenburg, and manager Emma Hayes hope it’s a harbinger of things to come for the men. Speaking after her side beat Spurs 2-0 this evening, to inch ever closer to the WSL title, she told BT Sport: “I desperately hope we make it, and I don’t see why not, they played so well in the first leg, so I hope the boys do it tonight. This is this football club, this place is a dream to work at, winning is in the bones of everybody. It would be no surprise to me if they were to make it.”
Weather report. It wasn’t quite the raging storm of last night in Manchester, but there’s been hail in west London tonight as well. That’s since morphed into rain, and the forecast suggests things will dry out later. Whatever happens, we should have a nice greasy pitch for some fast knockabout fun.
Welcome to Stamford Bridge. Fans have congregated outside the ground to wish the home heroes all the best as they arrive for work. They’re gonna make it a blue day, as one of the many Chelsea-approved ska musicians once sang.
Kai Havertz is rewarded for his two goals against Fulham at the weekend. He replaces the hero of the first leg, Christian Pulisic, who drops to the bench. That’s the only change to the starting XI from last week.
Real Madrid make three changes to the team sent out for the first leg. The aforementioned Sergio Ramos comes back to take the place of, and the captain’s armband from, Marcelo. One-time Chelsea star Eden Hazard and Ferland Mendy step in for injured pair Dani Carvajal and Raphael Varane.
Chelsea: Mendy, Christensen, Thiago Silva, Rudiger, Azpilicueta, Kante, Jorginho, Chilwell, Mount, Werner, Havertz.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Alonso, Abraham, Pulisic, Caballero, Zouma, Giroud, Hudson-Odoi, Ziyech, Gilmour, James, Emerson Palmieri.
Real Madrid: Courtois, Nacho, Eder Militao, Sergio Ramos, Mendy, Modric, Casemiro, Kroos, Hazard, Benzema, Vinicius Junior.
Subs: Asensio, Marcelo, Lunin, Valverde, Odriozola, Isco, Mariano, Rodrygo, Altube, Arribas, Blanco, Gutierrez.
Referee: Daniele Orsato (Italy).
The big news for Real Madrid ... as expected, Sergio Ramos is back.
Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden)
📋✅ Our starting XI 🆚 @ChelseaFC!#UCL pic.twitter.com/0YaXclD4vD
May 5, 2021
History suggests it will be Chelsea who play Manchester City in the 2021 Champions League final on 29 May. Not the history that has Real Madrid winning 13 European Cups to Chelsea’s one; the history in which Real have played Chelsea four times, drawing two and losing two. The Blues, it would seem, have the grand old Spanish club’s number.
They drew with Real in the 1971 Cup Winners Cup final, then beat them in the replay, John Dempsey and Peter Osgood the goalscoring heroes. Gus Poyet decided the 1998 Super Cup final. And last Tuesday, Chelsea were the better team in a 1-1 draw at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano, Christian Pulisic becoming the first USA international to score in a Champions League semi. Thomas Tuchel’s side are in form and confident. The final is within their grasp.
Only problem is, Real are in decent nick themselves – they haven’t lost in any competition since late January – and they’re past masters at making it through to the final, having won four of their last five semis. Chelsea by contrast get a little more nervous at this stage of the competition; they’ve reached the semis on seven occasions, but have only made it through to the final twice. So perhaps history suggests it will be Real Madrid who play Manchester City in the 2021 Champions League final on 29 May.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying: this is perfectly poised. Will Thomas Tuchel make it back to the final, having taken PSG there last season? Or will it be another triumph for Zinedine Zidane, who will be hoping to contest (and win!) the biggest match in club football for a fourth time as a manager? We should have a blast finding out. It’s on!
Kick off: 8pm BST.
from Football | The Guardian https://ift.tt/33gLkU6
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