Carlo Ancelotti said yesterday Real Madrid will not under-estimate Chelsea in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final and dismissed Thomas Tuchel’s suggestion the tie is over. 
After Madrid’s 3-1 victory against the defending champions at Stamford Bridge last week, a furious Tuchel said “no, not at the moment” when asked if the tie was still alive, although the German was more optimistic yesterday.  
But Ancelotti insisted Madrid will be taking nothing for granted at the Santiago Bernabeu today against his former club as they try to finish the job and reach the semi-finals. “Chelsea are here to bring the fight to us. It will be tough for them of course but they will try. Good teams never give up,” Ancelotti said. 
Chelsea delivered the perfect response last weekend by thrashing Southampton 6-0 in the Premier League and might take encouragement from Barcelona thrashing Madrid 4-0 only three weeks ago.
“I know my players very well,” said Ancelotti.  “They are well aware of what happened a few weeks ago (against Barca) and what is required tomorrow. We won’t be under-estimating anyone. This is a great opportunity to reach the semis but Chelsea are a very good team. We have to respect them. It’s the only way we can prepare for this game, thinking that Chelsea will be better tomorrow and be ready. There is no other way. We are ready. We know we will have to suffer and we are ready to suffer,” Ancelotti added.
Ancelotti’s future at Real Madrid was thrown into doubt after the Clasico humiliation but three wins in a row since, including the victory over Chelsea, has eased the pressure. Real Madrid are 12 points clear at the top of La Liga.
Asked if he expects still to be coach next season, Ancelotti said: “I hope so. I have a relatively long contract (until 2024) but that’s not what I’m thinking about right now. If the club are happy with me, great. If not, I will be grateful for the opportunity I got to manage Real Madrid again.”
Karim Benzema scored a hat-trick against Chelsea last week, with the Frenchman now on 42 goals in 42 games this season.  His scintillating form comes in stark contrast to Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku, who cost the club 115mn euros ($125mn) last summer but has fallen out of favour under Tuchel.
“Karim has to be a modern striker,” Ancelotti said. “In the old days strikers would hang around the box and just tap the ball in when they could. Now they have to do more. Modern strikers don’t just score the tap-ins. They have to defend. They have to fight. In my opinion Karim is the model modern striker.”
Asked if Madrid rely too heavily on Benzema, Ancelotti said: “I have nothing to hide. We rely on him and I’m happy about that.”


Chelsea face ‘incredibly high’ challenge, says Tuchel
Meanwhile, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel said his team need a “fantastic script” to overturn a two-goal deficit against Real Madrid. “It is one of the biggest challenges to perform away at the Bernabeu,” Tuchel said. 
“It is even more difficult if you have to earn a certain result, if you need to win with a minimum of two goals or better or maybe a three-goal difference, that makes it almost impossible and very, very difficult but still it is worth trying. We need nothing else than a fantastic script if we want to overcome this,” the German said.
“The task is incredibly high and the challenge is incredibly high given the circumstances of the first leg and where we play and against whom we play and at what stage we play this kind of match. It’s always allowed to dream and it is sometimes important to imagine things and to dream about it but it will not shift the focus from the fact that we need to deliver and we need to be ready tomorrow.”
Tuchel said he believed Chelsea face a “huge disadvantage” as 13-times European champions Real have been able to make five substitutions throughout their domestic season. 
Five substitutions will be allowed in the Premier League from next season, something which was initially put in place following the return to action after the delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic.