For all the pessimism surrounding Chelsea’s Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid there are reasons to be optimistic going into their biggest game of the season.
If Frank Lampard’s team can take some pointers from the way Villarreal played against Madrid on Saturday and not repeat the mistakes Barcelona made in last week’s Spanish Cup semi-final second leg then they have a chance.
The most obvious no-no is to repeat Barcelona’s error from late in the first half of their match with Madrid last Wednesday. Running into space left behind a high defensive line is what Madrid do better than any team in Europe.