Published:

Hasenhüttl wary of wounded Chelsea

Migration/73091445880

Manager Ralph Hasenhüttl is wary of facing a Chelsea side who head to the south coast on Saturday after back-to-back defeats for the first time since September.

Thomas Tuchel’s side suffered a surprise 4-1 defeat at home to Brentford in the Premier League last weekend, following up with a 3-1 loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday night.

Despite those results, the Saints boss remains realistic about the challenge his side will face at St Mary’s.

“It's interesting that such a team was a little bit affected by the home loss against Brentford, you could feel it. They were not so confident with everything they did.

“But that's a good thing to see that also big teams are struggling sometimes. The bad thing is that this doesn't happen very often.

“I think even if they win this game [against Real Madrid] 3-0 and have the next game on Tuesday against them, I know that the Saturday game is very important for them.

“The Premier League games for Chelsea are always important against us especially, because I know it's not easy coming here and I think it will be a tough game, tough fight and we will try to make it as tough for them as possible.”