Real Madrid see complacency as their biggest enemy as they aim to reach their 18th European Cup final on Wednesday night.
It’s part of the reason why they have barely celebrated winning the league at the weekend.
Home advantage in a second leg with the score at 2-2 suits them but Carlo Ancelotti has spent the last few days drumming it into his players that this game is all that matters, not a possible Wembley final.
And it’s why there were such muted festivities after the weekend crowning as LaLiga champions.
The Madrid players watched the first semi-final on Tuesday night at their Valdebebas training ground and there is a feeling in the camp that some in France underestimated Borussia Dortmund and Madrid do not want to repeat the mistake.
Vinicius Junior celebrates after scoring Real Madrid’s equaliser against Bayern last week
Carlo Ancelotti wouldn’t allow any celebrations after Real clinched the LaLiga title
Harry Kane, who scored in the first leg from the spot, was turned down by Real last summer
President Florentino Perez also paid the players a visit on Tuesday evening and with 15.5 million euros [£13.3m] euro up for grabs for reaching Wembley he will also be keen to make sure there is no complacency.
Bayern’s history, Harry Kane leading the race to win the Golden Shoe, and the fact that Thomas Tuchel has won this competition and never lost away in Madrid are all reasons to support that caution.
If the fifth-best team in the Bundesliga can deny Kylian Mbappe his Champions League final goodbye, then the second best team led by the wily Tuchel can cause a shock in the Spanish capital.
Tuchel also knows that Bayern are not the favourites and he seemed to be playing up to that in his charm-offensive press conference.
‘I don’t need to explain the legend of Madrid to you,’ he told Spanish reporters. ‘I grew up reading about it.’
He also joked with them when asked about what has surprised him most about Kane. ‘The amount of coffee he drinks,’ he said. ‘He is never far away from the machine.’
Madrid looked at Kane last summer but were very quickly put off by his price tag – they felt it was too much for a player past 30.
English stars Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham will go head-to-head again on Wednesday
Thomas Tuchel’s Champions League record is one reason why Real are remaining cautious
They are wary of the extent he can make them pay for that judgement.
Tuchel is definitely being taken seriously in Madrid despite a disastrous season in Germany for the former Chelsea manager set to move on this summer.
He has made plenty of the fact that his team have had an extra 24 hours to prepare, speaking about double set-play sessions in training in the build-up to the game.
He will have a plan, with Jamal Musiala likely to be at the heart of it. He looks set to play off Kane with Serge Gnabry coming into the team on the wing.
‘It’s normal that the manager is cautious,’ said Real Madrid captain Dani Carvajal who will start in what will be Madrid’s best 11 bar Thibaut Courtois and Eder Militao who are both only just back from injury and hoping Madrid make the Wembley final by which time they will be fit.
Playing the second leg at home is clearly going to help Madrid. They have not been knocked out playing the second leg at home since Ajax, under Erik ten Hag did it to them in 2019.
But their record is not without blemishes. In 2015 Juventus knocked them out at the Bernabeu at the semi-final stage, and with Ancelotti in his first spell at the club on the home bench.
Despite all the efforts to not take Bayern lightly, you will be hard pressed to find a Real Madrid fan not convinced their team are going through.
A spectacular scene will await the two teams at the Bernabeu on Wednesday evening
Real lifted the European Cup for the 14th time when they defeated Liverpool in 2022
Madrid fans will meet outside the stadium two hours before kick-off to welcome the team bus with a sea of white shirts, twirling white scarfs, and no shortage of smoke flares.
This raucous welcome has been talked up on social media by the Madrid players. ‘We will see you there Madridistas’ posted full-back Lucas Vazquez.
It’s a prematch boost for the players that is also designed to unsettle Bayern Munich who will have around 4,000 supporters inside the Bernabeu.
The Bernabeu can intimidate rivals of a delicate disposition. Bayern have no history of being shrinking violets though.
They have faced Madrid 27 times in European competition. No fixture has repeated more often in the tournament and familiarity has bred, more than contempt, a wary respect.
