Thomas Tuchel has made four changes to his Chelsea side for this evening's Champions League quarter-final first leg against Real Madrid at Stamford Bridge – the biggest of which sees Marcos Alonso step out of starting XI and Cesar Azpilicueta lining up at left wing-back.
The Chelsea head coach has kept faith with the majority of his stars who were involved in the shock 4-1 defeat to Brentford but has reverted to his tried and trusted 3-4-2-1 formation, having deployed a 4-3-3 for the visit of the Bees on Saturday, which quite frankly, did not work.
In goal for the Blues once more is Edouard Mendy. The Senegal international makes his 20th appearance in the Champions League and has kept 14 clean sheets in the previous 19. Another shutout would go a long way to giving Chelsea a first-leg advantage to take to the Bernabeu.
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Andreas Christensen, who has struggled with injury issues for much of 2022, is back in on the right of the defence, and Thiago Silva takes his spot in the middle. Antonio Rudiger, who had a mixed afternoon against Brentford, maintains his spot on the left of the three-man backline.
Tuchel faced a difficult decision as to who started in his midfield. Mateo Kovacic, Jorginho and N'Golo Kante are all worthy of featuring in a Champions League quarter-final given their quality and experience, but the Chelsea head coach has opted for the latter duo. And perhaps that is no surprise given their influence in last season's competition.
Mason Mount is moved back into the front three after being used in midfield at the weekend, and Christian Pulisic returns, having not featured against Brentford due to jet lag. The American conducted a pre-match press conference yesterday and is not expecting an easy night's work against Los Blancos.
"I think there's obviously some new players, new coach, new system they might play," he said. "There are some similarities in the team. I'm not too sure. We are continuing to look at their team and figure out the best way to play, we will continue to talk about it, and I think we will be prepared for what they have.
"We should definitely take confidence. We obviously got a good result last year and hope to do the same this year. It's a big team, never going to be easy - Champions League knockout game, and it won't be easy, but given we beat them and won it all last season, we should feel confident, and that's our mindset going into it."
Tuchel is never short of attacking options, but there is no surprise that he has gone for Kai Havertz as his number nine ahead of Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner. The German forward has impressed in recent weeks and will lead the Chelsea press as Tuchel's side attempts to pin back Real.
Chelsea: Mendy; Christensen, Silva, Rudiger; James, Kante, Jorginho, Azpilicueta; Mount, Havertz, Pulisic
Chelsea substitutes: Kepa, Bettinelli, Alonso, Sarr, Chalobah, Kenedy, Kovacic, Saul, Loftus-Cheek, Werner, Ziyech, Lukaku
