Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel has warned his players about dwelling on their win in Bucharest when their focus should purely be on tonight’s match.
Despite their one-goal lead, there are certainly reasons for Chelsea caution. Very much in the mould of their manager, Atletico Madrid are a club that never know when they’re beaten.
In their European Cup and Champions League history, Atleti have a 50% progression rate when losing the first leg of knockout games, progressing from four of eight previous ties in these circumstances.
Tuchel has therefore sounded a note of caution to his players.
The Chelsea boss said: “If we start thinking too much about the [first leg] result, we stop thinking about the process. We have to be in this game on the level against a team like this. I hope we are not influenced by the first result. We want to play a high-intensity game to put them to their limits. It is clear that you need two top-level games to go through.”