Chelsea are gearing up for their FA Cup semi-final bout with Crystal Palace on Sunday in what is now the Blues' only realistic chance of adding another trophy this season. Thomas Tuchel will be hoping his side can replicate the sort of form they have shown over the past week.
Last weekend saw, Chelsea thump Southampton 6-0 at St. Mary's just a few days before they went to the Santiago Bernabeu and won 3-2 (lost 5-4 on aggregate). "Confidence-wise, I think it is a huge boost, but still, it is a disappointment to go out of the Champions League at the quarter-final," Tuchel said in his press conference on Friday.
"It's not like a big drama in this kind of way, but it is still a disappointment because we felt we could be one of the four teams in the semi-final. It is a weird feeling. We had a huge task to go to Madrid – to win by a minimum of two goals to make it to extra time or three goals to win in a knockout game at Bernabeu.
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"This was a fantastic performance and stayed like this, but it still tastes bitter because we are out of the Champions League. In both legs, we made too many individual mistakes, and too many got punished by individual quality."
Chelsea now has to put Tuesday's dramatic clash with Real Madrid behind them as they make the short trip to Wembley to take on London rivals Crystal Palace. The Blues have been going through their last-minute preparations ahead of the clash, with the club releasing a video of their training sessions at Cobham.
You can see plenty of one-touch football in the footage with two players in the middle trying to win back possession. One of them sees N'Golo Kante in the middle, chasing down the ball in typical style.
When the ball arrives at Mateo Kovacic, the midfielder looks away before slightly lifting it over Kante's foot, which causes Jorginho to brutally laugh at his teammate. Kante took it well, though, and can be seen sharing a laugh with Jorginho at his own expense.
Romelu Lukaku was also spotted in training with his Chelsea teammates as the Belgian nears a return to first-team action following his Achilles injury. Tuchel said this on Friday: "Yeah [everyone is fine], except for Ben Chilwell and Callum Hudson-Odoi.
"Everyone seems to be okay. Still have two more training sessions to go, so fingers crossed. Romelu was back in training yesterday. Let's see if he has any reaction or not. Everyone should be okay."
