Real Madrid attacking duo Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior may have given Crystal Palace and Patrick Vieira a blueprint to shocking Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea in their upcoming semi-final clash.
Both teams come into this London derby on the back of disappointing results. Chelsea despite valiantly battling in the Santiago Bernabeu in their quest to overturn their first-leg deficit against Carlo Ancelotti's side, fell just short. Meanwhile, whilst also having more time to recover than the Blues, Vieira's side needs a response from their 3-1 loss against Leicester City in the Premier League last weekend.
"We are very disappointed and very proud at the same time. We played a fantastic match and deserved what we had. We scored four goals and had big chances to score even more. We were unlucky, that's why we are disappointed. We got beaten by pure individual quality and offensive conversion after our mistakes," Tuchel said in his post-match press conference on Tuesday.
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"Unfortunately, we had two mistakes after ball wins, and they were the most crucial moments in games against Real Madrid. In the end, we were unlucky. We deserved to go through after this performance and match today, but it was not meant to be. As you know, in games like these, you need luck and it was not on our side."
Both sides now have blueprints from Leicester and Real Madrid regarding how to expose weaknesses present in their opponents, but one moment in particular from the Spanish capital may cause slight concern as Sunday approaches. Before the winning goal in extra time, Benzema and Vinicius seem to be talking over how they were planning to exploit the back four and it seems one tactic, in particular, worked, as per a video circulated around on Reddit.
Down Reece James' side, the ball was funnelled to the Brazilian before he delivered a cross early into the box for the Frenchmen to attack.
Crosses into the box for a target-man type of a striker was Chelsea's undoing in the end on this occasion, so could the likes of Wilfried Zaha, Jean-Philippe Mateta and Michael Olise repeat the same feat at the national stadium?
