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Thomas Tuchel insists Chelsea will not sit back on their away-goal advantage against Real Madrid in the Champions League as it is in the club’s DNA to try to win every match.
Christian Pulisic scored a crucial goal for Chelsea in last week’s semi-final first leg before Karim Benzema levelled up the tie at 1-1 through Madrid’s only shot on target, reports DPA.
The onus is on Madrid to score an away goal of their own in Wednesday’s return match at Stamford Bridge, but Tuchel does not intend to set his side out to protect their narrow lead.
“For me, the challenge is to forget the result in two-legged games and go on and start anew at 0-0,” he said at Tuesday’s pre-match news conference.
“We will prepare to win the match, nothing else. I don’t know any other way to prepare other than to encourage my team to go out and try to win it.
“If we are at our best then it’s a no-brainer that we go for the win. We want to win games, this club is about winning. This game and competition is about winning. We are in the semi-final second leg.
“The first result is not as important as everybody thinks. There is zero importance for me in the preparation of this match. It’s not changed anything about how we’ve prepared, zero influence. We will encourage them, we will demand from them and we will be strong tomorrow as a group.”
Tuchel was left frustrated by Chelsea’s finishing in the first leg, with Timo Werner guilty of missing good opportunities either side of Pulisic and Benzema’s goals.
But while Tuchel accepts his attacking players have to be more clinical, he is happy to persist with his current set-up.
“I believe that Timo absolutely wants to score more, but we have to understand sometimes strikers miss chances. This is part of the game,” he said.
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