Real Madrid and Chelsea will be in action in their respective leagues this weekend, taking on Osasuna and Fulham respectively. However, both teams will have one eye on their highly-anticipated UEFA Champions League semi-final clash, with the Spanish and London giants set to face off in the 2nd leg to determine who makes the final.
Zidane's men only managed to salvage a draw, with Karim Benzema cancelling out an early opener from Pulisic to see out a 1-1 stalemate. This leaves the Liga giants in a huge disadvantage as that was the home leg, meaning Los Merengues will be eliminated if they fail to score an away goal at Stamford Bridge this Wednesday.
Fortunately, Real Madrid have received a huge boost ahead of that tie. Zidane confirmed that inspirational captain Sergio Ramos, who has been absent for quite some time, will be back in time for the second leg.
The Spanish center-back has been on the sidelines for a month, battling with a calf injury and, more recently, COVID-19. However, speaking ahead of Saturday's clash with Osasuna, which the captain has been left out of, Zidane confirmed that the Bernabeu icon is available and ready for Wednesday's Champions League showdown.
"[Ramos] is training with us and that means he's able to play too," Zidane told reporters, as per Goal.
"We'll see what we do when we name the squad, but Sergio is fit and ready to play."
Real Madrid's back-four have been impressive in their last few games despite missing the heart of their defense. Despite this, Ramos bring a lot more to the team than defensive stability as his leadership and habit of scoring crucial goals have been missed.
While Real Madrid were able to offer this lovely news, their European opponents Chelsea were hit with a not-so-lovely one. Speaking ahead of the Fulham game, Tuchel revealed that Mateo Kovacic, who has been a crucial player in the Blues' midfield since arriving from Madrid, has suffered a setback in his recovery from a hamstring issue and is thus a doubt for the 2nd leg.
"Unfortunately Kovacic is still injured," the German coach confessed, as per the Sun.
"He trained with us, but he's still not fully confident, he felt something at the end of training. So he's not available, unfortunately.
"All the others are available except for Toni Rudiger, who got injured in the last minute of the Madrid game. Everybody else is available.
"Before training today we thought that Kova had a big chance to join us latest for Madrid, maybe even for today.
"So now we have a little setback, not a big one, with him.
"I don't want to be too negative, let's see how he is tomorrow. For Toni, I'm quite positive for Wednesday."
Both teams will be keen on winning their respective weekend fixtures. Real Madrid are in the midst of a heated La Liga title race, with Los Blancos looking to profit off of Barcelona's recent slip-up. Chelsea, meanwhile, are locked in a tight top-four race and will want to avoid dropping points to relegation-battling Fulham.
