Graham Potter might have to work magic in the quarter-final second leg against Madrid. Because Chelsea will appear in the first leg, at the Bernabéu, with seven players in danger. Kepa, Thiago Silva, Koulibaly, Enzo Fernández, Reece James, Conor Gallagher and Mudryk are now one yellow away from missing the decisive match at Stamford Bridge. A situation that will greatly condition the London team… because Madrid has no warning.
In addition to the number of footballers at risk, there is their quality. Potter has essential players in each of his lines: from Kepa under the sticks to Mudryk, one of those in charge of alleviating the team’s lack of goals. Blues. The Basque goalkeeper barely concedes 0.57 goals per gameonly improved among the starting goalkeepers by the citizen Ederson (0.33 targets per game).
Mudryk knows Madrid well, having faced the Whites twice in the group stage with Shakhtar. The great jewel of Ukrainian football is still to be released in 343 minutes with Chelsea. He only has one assist.
The bulk of the footballers who will play conditionally are at the rear. In addition to Kepa, there is Thiago Silva and above all two of the fittest players on the team, Koulibaly (arrived in the summer from Naples for €38M) who is the fourth most used Chelsea footballer (2,215 ‘so far) and the English international Reece Jamesone of the best right-backs in the Premier.
The yellow alert at Chelsea, another factor to be handled by Real Madrid against a rival they know very well, because It will be the third consecutive clash between the two in the knockout rounds of the Champions League.