Had it not been for the rebellion held by English supporters against the plans for the European Super League, this fixture might well have been one that took place in the ill-fated scheme.
Indeed, Real’s president Florentino Perez is still holding out to try and get the league started despite all the fallout of the past 10 days or so.
But after he claimed that there were only 40 Chelsea supporters involved in the protest outside Stamford Bridge last week, people are taking his even less seriously than they were before.
I am proud to say that I took part in the demonstration and would estimate that the number of Chelsea supporters who attended was more like 3000.
Saturday saw Chelsea take a massive step towards qualification for next season’s Champions League thanks to the only goal of the game against West Ham that was scored by Timo Werner.
Madrid meanwhile, played out a 0-0 draw against Real Betis, the point seeing them miss out on the chance to go top of La Liga.
Former Chelsea favourite Eden Hazard hasn’t featured in a league match for the Spaniards since January, but Thibaut Courtois will more than likely be in goal and will face Chelsea, the side he left after refusing to train in a successful bid to engineer a move to Spain.
Chelsea have met Real Madrid on four previous occasions and remain unbeaten.
The first time they played each other was in 1966 at Stamford Bridge in a friendly when goals from Tony Hateley and John Hollins saw Chelsea win 2-0 and lift the International Charity Cup.
In 1971, Chelsea famously beat Madrid in the final of the European Cup Winners Cup to win their first European trophy in a game played in Athens.
After a 1-1 draw in which Peter Osgood scored for Chelsea, the centre forward was on target again in the replay two days later, scoring the winner after John Dempsey had levelled the score at 1-1.
In 1998 and after winning the Cup Winners Cup for the second time, Chelsea played European Champions Madrid in the Super Cup, a game the Londoners won thanks to the only goal scored by G*s P*yet.
As far as my bet for this game is concerned, I’ll be putting my money on Chelsea earning a draw and less than 2.5 goals being scored in the game which is 3.60 with our friends at FansBet.
About the Author
Londoner David Johnstone is a home, away and European away Chelsea supporter and has missed just six matches since 2001 (although he’s quick to state there are plenty of other supporters with better attendance records than him).
He has been involved with the fanzine scene at Chelsea since around 1991 and started the ‘cfcuk’ fanzine in 1999 which was, until Mr Abramovich bought the club in 2003, named ‘Matthew Harding’s Blue And White Army’.
David was also responsible for forming both the Chelsea Supporters’ Group and the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust which are the main two bodies that represent the followers of Chelsea FC and take their concerns to those running the club.
A founder of the highly regarded Chelsea FanCast weekly podcast (but is no longer involved) and responsible for the crowd surfing banners and supporter displays that are seen in the Matthew Harding Stand at Stamford Bridge on matchday.
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