Champions League: Romelu Lukaku Setback For Chelsea
Striker Romelu Lukaku will not be on the sidelines as defending champions Chelsea look to trail Real Madrid 3-1 in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Lukaku, who came off the bench in the first leg, has yet to recover from the Achilles injury that kept him out of Saturday’s 6-0 Premier League victory over Southampton.
Captain Cesar Azpilicueta travels to Spain after missing the game with Southampton after testing positive for the coronavirus.
Romelu Lukaku has been ruled out of Chelsea's trip to Real Madrid due to injury 🤕 pic.twitter.com/obuleaSVnF
— GOAL News (@GoalNews) April 11, 2022
Midfielder Ross Barkley is out due to illness.
Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ben Chilwell remain out with back and knee injuries.
The winner will face either Manchester City or Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals, with City leading 1-0 ahead of Wednesday’s second leg in Spain.
Chelsea lost to Naples 1-3 in the first round of the last 16 last season, but they advanced to the quarter-finals with a total score of 5-4.
“Chelsea vs Napoli, they lost 3-1 and came back,” said Chelsea midfielder Mateo Kovacic.
“Football is always surprising, we have to be over 100 per cent.”
Regarding the loss to Real Madrid in the first leg, he said: “We didn’t play the best game and the result was not very good, but there is hope and we are motivated to do our best.”
The Bernabeu will be Chelsea’s first European game.
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