Carlo Ancelotti makes just one change to the Real Madrid team that won the first leg of this quarter-final tie. Eder Militao is out of the squad and is replaced in the back line with Nacho.

Courtois; Carvajal, Nacho, Alaba, Mendy; Casemiro, Kroos, Modric; Valverde, Benzema, Vinicius Jr.

Chelsea midfielder Mateo Kovacic says that his team can fight back after their 3-1 defeat in the first leg at Stamford Bridge but they will have to play better if they hope to overturn that two-goal deficit.

“Chelsea against Napoli, they lost 3-1 and then they came back,” he said. “Football is always surprising and we need to be more than 100%.

“We didn’t have our best game and our result is not good, but there is hope and we are motivated to show our best.”

Real Madrid are in pole position to advance to the sem-finals of the Champions League after a 3-1 victory over the reigning champions in the first leg at Stamford Bridge.

Thomas Tuchel admitted after that match that this tie was all but over yet Chelsea have history overcoming such deficits. They lost 3-1 to Napoli in the last-16 first leg last season, but advanced to the quarter-finals 5-4 on aggregate and eventually won the whole competition.

The winners will face Manchester City or Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals, with City leading 1-0 before Wednesday’s second leg in Spain.

Thomas Tuchel spoke about how his squad is shaping up ahead of tonight’s clash with Real Madrid and acknowledged a few issues that the Blues are having to deal with.

“With the injury news, Callum Hudson-Odoi is still out and Ben Chilwell is of course out for a long time,” said Tuchel.

“Romelu [Lukaku] will not travel due to his pain in the achilles that he has felt recently but Azpi [Cesar Azpilicueta] is in the group. He has tested negative several times now and it is okay to be part of the squad.

“Ross Barkley is sick, however, and will not travel with us later. That is the situation right now and everyone else is in the squad.”

Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku will not feature against Real Madrid for tonight’s Champions League quarter-final as he has not recovered from the Achilles injury that kept him out of Saturday’s 6-0 Premier League win at Southampton.

Cesar Azpilicueta missed that game after testing positive for Covid-19 but has traveled to Spain and could feature tonight but Ross Barkley is absent because of illness with Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ben Chilwell sidelined by back and knee injuries respectively.

Good afternoon and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of Real Madrid vs Chelsea in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals. Karim Benzema’s hat-trick at Stamford Bridge last week means the European champions are on the brink of elimination and Thomas Tuchel’s side need to overcome a 3-1 deficit in the Bernabeau to keep the defense of their title alive.

Tuchel had claimed the tie was all but over following the first-leg defeat to the La Liga leaders but his mood will have been improved by Chelsea’s 6-0 win over Southampton on Saturday. The Chelsea manager has called on his team to leave everything on the pitch but he will know they must be faultlessly defensively against Benzema, who is enjoying the best season of his career and inspired the Spanish side to their victory in London.

“It is one of the biggest challenges to perform as the away team at the Bernabeu,” Tuchel said ahead of the match. “And 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 even a three-goal difference.”