Chelsea must prove their new big-game mentality against Real Madrid

Thomas Tuchel has changed a lot about Chelsea, but the biggest difference has been the Blues' newfound ability to win big games.

Frank Lampard's side beat just one top-ten team in the first half of the season - a 3-0 win over West Ham in December - but Tuchel has transformed the Blues and led them to victories over Tottenham, Liverpool, Atletico Madrid and, most recently, Manchester City.

Beating a 75% City side in the FA Cup semi-final was huge, but Tuchel's Chelsea have not faced a challenge like they will encounter on Tuesday - a Champions League semi-final away from home against Real Madrid.

They don't come much bigger than this. Real might not be at their dominant best, but nobody on the planet knows what it takes to win a Champions League title better than Zinedine Zidane and Los Blancos, who always manage to step it up when on the grandest stage.

Real are the definition of a big-game team, and it's time for Chelsea to prove they deserve the same label.

Zidane's squad is overflowing with serial winners. At the back, Dani Carvajal and Raphael Varane have won it all, and the midfield trio of Casemiro, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos is probably the best on the face of the earth. In attack, Karim Benzema reigns supreme.

These players all know what is needed to win big games, and that's Real will enter the match as narrow favourites. They have experience on stages even bigger than this, whereas Chelsea are making it up as they go along. Even Tuchel has only made it this far twice, the first time being last year alongside centre-back Thiago Silva at Paris Saint-Germain.

To Chelsea's credit, you wouldn't know they are still learning how to win big games. They've dispatched of some of the game's biggest teams in the past few months, and the ruthless efficiency with which they neutralised a City side which still featured the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling deserves an obscene amount of credit.

In that game, it was N'Golo Kante and Jorginho who put on a masterclass. They dictated possession and wiped out any City threat, and if they can repeat that against Modric, Kroos and Casemiro, they'll be worthy of the big-game label. Only the creme de la creme can match up to them.

Sure, Chelsea might need a little luck, but at this point, they deserve that. They have looked confident against each and every opponent so far, and long may it continue.

"We deserve to be in the semi-finals, like Real Madrid deserve to be in the semi-finals," said Tuchel (via the club's official website). "We deserve it because we came a long way. I had the luck to be part of it since the start of the knockout phase and all the teams in the semi-finals have come a long way. They fought their way through in the toughest competition in Europe.

"Right now we deserve through the competition to be here, and that’s why we are full of confidence and looking forward to playing these matches at the highest level. This is what we all dream about."

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