Real Madrid supporters are still waiting for Eden Hazard to produce at their club in the manner that he has in all the previous stops of his career. The Belgian has not come even remotely close to living up to his stellar reputation nor his astronomical price tag.

Given what happened last night, in Madrid’s 2-0 loss to Chelsea and thus elimination from the Champions League, we could say now that Hazard may never live up to the hype at Madrid. Hazard was caught laughing and smiling with his former Chelsea teammates after they knocked his current team out of the UCL semifinal. There’s probably no coming back from this. 

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We’ll have an all-English UEFA Champions League final this season as Chelsea will face Manchester City in Istanbul on May 29. Kickoff time has not been set, but most likely it will be 7 GMT/2 EST. It will be televised on BT Sport in the UK and CBS in the US.

This match will mark the first time that an American will feature in the UCL final, in Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic. Captain America came on tonight in the 67′ as a substitute and closed the game out. Up 1-0, Chelsea were looking for breathing room, up 1-0 in the match and 2-1 in the tie, but needing one more scoring strike to finish Real Madrid off.

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Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel met the media today ahead of tomorrow night’s Champions League semifinal second leg against Real Madrid. The session yielded two major topics of newsworthiness- the potential return of team captain Sergio Ramos, and a potential contract extension for the Blues boss.

The west London club have the home field advantage tomorrow night, plus an away goal from the first leg. However, Tuchel knows that the Reyes Del Europa (Kings of Europe) are going to pose a tougher challenge in the return game now that they’ll have their central defender star man back in the fold.

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Chelsea have been considered, at least since the last round or two of the UEFA Champions League, a sleeper pick to claim the title. They are favored to beat Real Madrid on Wednesday night, and thus tipped to go through to the final, where the PSG-Man City winner awaits.

Chelsea are backed at 4/7 to qualify while Real Madrid are priced at 5/4. That said, Blues boss Thomas Tuchel admittedly has a couple of fitness concerns for this one, in central defender Toni Rudiger and midfielder Mateo Kovacic.

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In looking at how Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel could set up his team on Wednesday night against Real Madrid, we already know a few first team names that we’ll see on the sheet. The 2-0 weekend win over Fulham saw chance for Cesar Azpilicueta, Jorginho, N’Golo Kante and Christian Pulisic to rest.

They’ll come back into the team here, as the Blues look to finish at a much higher level than they did last week. Mason Mount, whom Tuchel says has the “full package,” is basically undroppable at this point. He was a major hero in the last round of this tournament.

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Real Madrid have a tough task ahead of them when they visit London to face Chelsea on Wednesday. With the club one game away from the Champions League final, what kind of line-up can we expect from Zinedine Zidane?

Conceding an away goal in the first leg could prove to be the deciding factor as we enter this game. The Spanish side will need to score, and most likely more than once, if they are to succeed in this tie. This will require the attack to be more cohesive than they were last week.

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Real Madrid travel to London looking to reach yet another Champions League final when they play Chelsea on Wednesday. With some big names missing out, let us have a look at their team news for this titanic clash.

Domestically, the Spanish giants continued their fight for the La Liga title as they scored a win over Osasuna last weekend. Facing the Blues will be a much harder challenge, especially when you consider the London side also have an away goal from the first leg. Real need to be efficient in attack, for the full 90 minutes, in order to try and take the tie away from the home side.

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