Hayes warns of dangers ahead of Chelsea’s fixture against Real Madrid | OneFootball

Chelsea manager Emma Hayes says that it would be dangerous to play down the threat of latest opponents Real Madrid.

The Blues face the Spanish giants in their latest UEFA Women’s Champions League fixture at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday evening.

Real Madrid have little but pride left to play for in this season’s group stage but Chelsea boss Hayes sees The Whites as a real threat if her side are not on their game.

“There’s nothing more dangerous than playing a team that have nothing to play for,” Hayes said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “They will fear nothing and they have their pride on the line. Yes, they are playing for three points and they can’t qualify but it’s a dangerous place for us if our mentality is to rule them out of the game.”

Hayes went on to say that topping the group is Chelsea’s main aim and that her players are ready to go out and put on another good performance at Stamford Bridge.

She said “It’s critical [to win the group], we expect that of ourselves. We are at home and everybody would expect us to be favourites going into the game, however, it’s Real Madrid, they’ve got a quality squad of internationals and they did score and draw with us in the reverse fixture.

“We know what we have to do. We have players that are focused on that and they are ready to put their energy into making the performance as good as it can be.”

Chelsea’s UEFA Women’s Champions League group stage fixture against Real Madrid at Stamford Bridge is scheduled to kick-off at 8pm on Wednesday evening. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.