What chance do you give your side of turning the tie around?
What chance? Not the biggest chance given the first game's results and given the competition and the opponent and the stadium we play. We never manage our input and our effort and our belief by the chances we have for our result. We never did and we will not start tomorrow by giving less because it is very unlikely that we make it. It is unlikely but it is worth trying and trying means that we will play to our fullest and to our full limit because this is what we do and we never manage our input and investment by the chances of having a result. This is what it is, it is a big night and a big match and we will try to be in better shape and condition that in the first match.
If this is where the title defence ends, how do Champions end it?
By not accepting it before it ends. By not accepting it and by leaving everything on the pitch that we have and by showing we can work harder, play better, that we know we can take more risks and that we show our true face and live up to our full potential. That's what we should do first.
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It's a tight turnaround, what can you learn from last week?
We need absolutely to learn from last week's game. That is the beauty of the competition and this stage that you have two matches in very short notice and that you can learn from the games. You can use pictures and moments and situations from the first leg to learn from for the second leg. This is what we tried to do and what we will use in the preparation for this match.
Injury news?
The injury situation is that Callum Hudson-Odoi is still out, Ben Chilwell of course still out. Romelu will not travel with us due to his pain in the Achilles. Azpi is in the group he has tested several times negative and Ross Barkley is sick, he will not travel. Everybody else is in the squad.
How different will it be playing at the Bernabeu compared to the youth stadium?
It cannot be more different. It was at the training ground and the youth stadium. It cannot be more different. It is one of the biggest challenges to perform as an away team at the Bernabeu, 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 even, maybe a three-goal difference. Almost impossible and very, very difficult but it is still worth trying and it is a stage where you can also overperform. We need to overperform. It is not easy but it is a big experience to learn from and maybe an experience to take and overperform.
Real Madrid have great players but many in their 30s. Were you surprised you couldn't make the physicality more of an issue in the first game?
First of all, we wanted it more physical, we did not work hard enough. We did not work intensely enough in the first match. Second of all, we faced a huge disadvantage in terms of physicality because Real Madrid played the whole year with five changes and we play the most demanding league and played the most matches throughout the season. It's not always easy to play a physical game. We are a team that needs the physicality, the sharpness, the investment to be a special team. We could not implement that enough in the last match. This was also due to their quality and capacity to slow the game down and control the match by ball possession, this is what it is.
For example, last season the second leg in an empty Stamford Bridge of course, but we were very, very intense. We look at the data again, it was a very intense match. We lost ball possession also, so ball possession alone for the opponent is not the statistic that logically says you don't have an intense game. We struggled last week to implement that, we struggled with our counter-pressing and finding intensity and runs. Can we do it now? Let's see. The game is totally different but we will need to find a way to play a more physical game and this is part of the solution.
Does the dreamer in you think this could be the stuff of schoolboy heroes with a fantastic script to be written?
We need nothing else than a fantastic script if we want to be able to overcome this. The task is incredibly high and the challenge is incredibly high given the circumstances of the first leg and where we play, against who we play, and the stage we play this kind of match.
It is always allowed to dream, it's sometimes important to imagine things and to dream about but it will not shift the focus from the fact we need to deliver and be ready tomorrow. We will support our team and we will try and we will try hard. It is worth trying, it is sports and it is a game and it's the beauty of the game that everything is possible always. We will arrive and try everything because it is worth trying and from there we see and hopefully, we have a match where belief grows by our actions. Hopefully, we can fulfill our dream and live up to our dream
