Thomas Tuchel Sends Warning To His Chelsea Team After Home Loss To Real Madrid

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has warned his team to forget about Real Madrid for now and focus on putting in a suitable performance in their next Premier League game.

Tuchel watched his side lose 3-1 to Real at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.

The second leg will take place in Madrid on Tuesday April 12, but first Chelsea visit Southampton on Saturday.

Chelsea's defeat by Real was their second home loss in five days after they were thrashed 4-1 by Brentford at the weekend.

Speaking after Wednesday's loss, Tuchel told BT Sport: "It is a heavy loss. It was one of the worst first halves that I saw from us here at Stamford Bridge. Individually and as a team it was by far not enough. It was far from our standards and then you lose games.

"Passing, where we passed, how we passed when we passed, when we attacked, the ball possession game... first half was so from any standards that we set ourselves that we cannot complain when we lose.

Thomas Tuchel looks frustrated during Chelsea's 3-1 home defeat by Real Madrid

IMAGO/Sportimage/David Klein

"We had 16 shots in the second half. You can always come back and win it but when you kill the game by yourself after 45 minutes it is harder and harder.

"No, we don't have to go to Madrid. We have to go Southampton and it is very important to process this. It is crucial that we go to Southampton. If we keep playing like this we will lose at Southampton and then we will get hammered at Bernabeu."

Chelsea began Wednesday's game against Real as favorites to win the match and to progress over two legs.

The Blues had never lost to Real in any of their five previous meetings.

Chelsea are the reigning European and world champions, but Tuchel is right to be concerned about Saturday's trip to Southampton.

If Chelsea allow this blip to grow into a a sizable run of poor form, there is a genuine possibility that they could fall out of the top four and fail to qualify for next season's Champions League.