Chelsea, the champion trembling from war

Mason Mount makes it 2-0 to Madrid in the second leg of last season's semi-finals. TOBY MELVILLE (Reuters)

There is no club at the moment in the elite with a more uncertain future than Chelsea, Madrid's rival in the quarterfinals of the Champions League (the first leg, on April 6 in London and the return leg, on April 12 at the Bernabéu).

The harsh sanctions imposed by the British Government on its owner, the Russian oligarch Roman Abramóvich, due to ties with the Vladimir Putin regime have caused the

an institutional crisis with unforeseeable consequences.

Since the Russian tanks invaded Ukraine and the international community began to apply strong economic punishments to the tentacles of the Kremlin, life changed radically in the European champion.

In the field, the Premier is already far away and the sporting note of the course will depend largely on the continental tournament, but what is now being settled at Stamford Bridge goes far beyond the conjuncture of a season.

In the last month, Chelsea followed a path parallel to the political and social scene in Europe and the rest of the world.

From the routine after the sixth wave of the pandemic to the anxiety caused by the effects of the Russian offensive in Ukraine.

In this case, very direct derivations.

After two weeks of strong pressure, Boris Johnson's Executive decided to activate the red button and act against the Russian oligarchs operating under his territory.

The best known, Roman Abramóvich, president of the London club since 2003, whose assets were frozen and, therefore, the announced sale of the entity was paralyzed.

On a day-to-day basis, the limitations at Stamford Bridge are severe: you cannot sell tickets (the match against Madrid could be held without an audience) or

products and, if nothing changes between now and the next transfer market, you will be prevented from buying , sale and renewal of players.

Right now, the restrictions only allow him to have just enough money to pay payroll and meet current expenses.

Chelsea, bought two decades ago by the oligarch for about 167 million and under whose mandate he has raised two Champions and five Premier, will receive Madrid in its most convulsive stage of the modern era.

The winner will meet in the prelude to the final with the winner of the City-Atlético (April 26 or 27 and May 3 or 4; the second game, in London or Madrid).

The offices tremble due to the consequences of the war while the team only has the Cup and European eggs left in the basket.

Until now, the team with an imposing plant, completely transformed by Tuchel in the second half of last season, who acted like a tunnel boring machine on the way to the Champions League, soon broke this course in the assault on the Premier.

With the arrival of winter, he began to accumulate failures and now he is in no man's land: third, 11 points behind City and 10 behind Liverpool, and with a wide nine-point cushion to secure a ticket to the next Champions League.

The overwhelming performance with which he closed last season received the most expensive reinforcement in the club's history: Romelu Lukaku (113 million).

At Inter he had scored 30 and 34 goals in the last two campaigns, however, for now the Belgian's fiasco is absolute: 11 goals, and just five in the Premier League and two in the Champions League.

In the round of 16 tie against Lille, which Chelsea won comfortably (2-0 and 1-2), the striker was only seen as an inventory title (16 minutes in the return leg with everything finalized).

The coexistence crack has reached such a point that the attacker already says openly that he would like to return to Milan sooner rather than later.

Amid so much unease, along the way Chelsea consoled itself with a minor crown (World Club Championship) and lost another (the League Cup in an eternal penalty shootout, 10-11).

Waiting to see if the Lukaku issue can be resolved, Madrid will find themselves with the same faces that overwhelmed them in the two clashes ten months ago.

In Valdebebas he was still able to scratch a tie (1-1) after an overwhelming start by Tuchel's boys and at Stamford Bridge (2-0), also empty, he hardly had any options even though he reached the final stretch one goal from forcing the extension.

That night, a limping Sergio Ramos played his last game with Madrid, Mendy also forced after an injury and then paid for it with five months off, and Zidane lined up a transparent Hazard on the left and placed Vinicius as a right-handed winger in a decision unpublished

In Madrid as in London, a midfield governed by Kanté and Jorginho annihilated the whites.

They two, plus the Havertz, Mount, Ziyech or Werner,

This will be the fourth meeting between the two, and so far they have all fallen on the

side .

Madrid lost the 1971 Cup Winners' Cup final (1-1 and 2-1 in the tiebreaker), the 1998 European Super Cup (1-0) and the previous year's tie.

Questions of the past when Chelsea is playing its future.

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