Real Madrid will face Chelsea at the Alfredo Di Stefano Stadium in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final on Tuesday. The kick-off is at 21:00 CET.

Preview

The Whites reached this stage of the competition by defeating Liverpool 3-1 on aggregate in the quarter-finals while the Blues proven their superiority over Porto in a 2-1 aggregate victory. Even though Madrid are still in the race to retain the La Liga title this term, Zinedine Zidane apparently favours European success over domestic goals. The Frenchman decided to rest a number of his key players against Betis over the weekend - something that cost Madrid a win against Manuel Pellegrini's side as they shared points in a narrow draw on Saturday.

The Blues, in turn, will travel to the Spanish capital on the back of a confident 1-0 triumph at West Ham on Saturday that followed a goalless draw against Brighton in mid-week.

Team news

Even though Eden Hazard returned to action against Betis, the Belgian is likely to be dropped to the bench this time around given Vinicius' incredible performances vs Liverpool in the previous round of the competition. Sergio Ramos, Lucas Vazquez and Ferland Mendy, in turn, remain on the sidelines while Fede Valverde is unavailable after contracting Covid-19. Toni Kroos, for his part, is doubtful due to muscular discomfort.

Thomas Tuchel, on the contrary, has a fully fit squad at his disposal aside from Mateo Kovacic who continues to struggle with a hamstring injury.

Prediction

This clash is an extremelly hard to call one but what looks certain is that you can hardly expect a goal fest taking place in Madrid on Tuesday. While Zidane will be thinking about keeping a clean-sheet ahead of next week's return clash at Stamford Bridge, Tuchel's side have scored more that two goals in one game just once in 21 matches since the German's appointment at Chelsea in January. Hence, we wouldn't be surprised if a single goal decides the outcome of the upcoming encounter.

Tip

Total under 2 at 2.11 with 1XBET.