Thomas Tuchel has responded to Zinedine Zidane's attempt at mind games ahead of Tuesday's Champions League semi-final.
Real Madrid host Chelsea in the first competitive meeting of the sides in almost 50-years. The Premier League side got the better of that encounter, beating Real 2-1 in a Piraeus replay to win the 1971 Cup Winners' Cup.
But Real head coach Zinedine Zidane feels the shadow of another (soon-to-be) defunct competition could impact on Tuesday night's game.
Real president Florentino Perez has been the most vocal proponent of the Super League, and is yet to formally disavow himself or the club from the project.
The Spanish giants could face a Champions League ban for their lingering involvement in the seemingly doomed project.
With that in mind, the Real head coach has begun to resemble your mad auntie spending too much time on Facebook during lockdown.
"It is absurd to think that we are not going to be in the Champions League next year," Zidane said ahead of the first-leg with Chelsea.
"That’s it, everything has been said.
"I believe we have to pay attention to tomorrow’s match but as we don’t control that [referees], it is going to be another obsession in this game.
“The answer is the referee will do his job as usual and we need to play football. If we think about anything they say that could damage us then it is going to be complicated. It will be a mess.
“We have to think about tomorrow’s match, play our match, the referees will do their job, we have to play from minute one until minute 90.”
But his Chelsea counterpart Tuchel has the utmost faith in Dutch official, Danny Makkelie.
The German said, "I trust 100 per cent in the referee and in UEFA and in the competition. I trust 100 per cent that any referee UEFA sends on this level.
"We need the best referees, because it's very, very difficult.
"And I trust 100 per cent that the referee will try to whistle the best match possible.
"I do not imagine that there is any advantage or disadvantage because of a sports political discussion.
"I don't even want to think about it, because it does not exist in my eyes."
Having seen what Real did to Liverpool upon their visit to the Estadio Alfredo di Stefano, Tuchel says he's prepared to make things ugly to come away with a positive result.
"If it's not possible to play our nicest match we are able to not let the opponent play their best match, which is also a definition of performance," the Chelsea boss said.
"So we have a strong bond within the squad, I feel us very, very involved physically in the games, ready to work together, to suffer together.
"And when it's needed to respond to the questions, if it's necessary to fight, to fight, to run to run, if it's the moment to show your skills or escape pressure with passing, or be dominant, we have in every match moments where we can do this.
"The level is so high when you arrive at a Champions League semi-final. But we should not expect crazy things from us, but the same again on the highest level.
"The good thing is we have the experience together, we've had tough matches, tight matches, very important matches in the PL and FA Cup.
"So we feel that it's a good moment to play this match, and we want to play hungry and we want to play adventurous.
"Maybe if there's a bit of a lack of experience in a semi-final, to compensate with hunger and enthusiasm."
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