Things couldn't have gone worse for Chelsea.
On Saturday, the team of German coach Thomas Tuchel lost 4-1 to Premier League promoted Brentford at home in Stamford Bridge – and the defeat could have been worse.
Between the 50th and 60th minute of the game, the defense conceded three goals in a phase of chaos, which is atypical for the normally stable defense under Tuchel.
The "Guardian" therefore called the performance against Brentford an "implosion", and for the BBC this "embarrassing result" did not fit Chelsea's ideas of the past few weeks and months, in which they won five games in a row in the league FA Cup semi-finals and also progressed one round in the Champions League.
In the quarter-finals of the top European competition this Wednesday (9:00 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Champions League and on DAZN), Chelsea will now welcome Real Madrid, the leaders in Spain, and must find their way back to their usual security, especially in defense.
Because Real striker Karim Benzema is in top form: in the 2-1 win over Celta Vigo on Saturday he scored both of his team's goals from penalties;
in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 against Paris Saint-Germain, he scored a hat-trick.
Tuchel complained that his defense simply "stopped defending" against Brentford, but didn't want to see the slip-up right after the game as a bad omen for the game against Madrid.
"It's not about Real.
It's about us.
We now have a day off and we will start again on Monday.”
After all: Chelsea can count on the support of the fans on Wednesday.
Ever since the UK government froze the assets of Roman Abramovich, who still owned Chelsea, in a series of sanctions against Russian oligarchs close to the Kremlin, the club has continued to play under a special license.
Initially, Chelsea were no longer allowed to sell tickets under this licence, but it has now been amended to allow the club to sell tickets for away league, cup and Champions League matches as long as the proceeds from them only go to the host associations or the host clubs.
In addition, a £30million deposit was arranged into Chelsea's accounts by one of Abramovich's companies to help cover running costs.
How things will continue when the special license expires at the end of the season is still open.
Because of the sanctions imposed on him, Abramovich wants to sell Chelsea as soon as possible, he has put a price tag of three billion pounds on the club.
The British government only wants to approve a sale if the money does not go to Abramovich but to a charity or one of the frozen accounts.
Various consortia have submitted takeover bids, and the US investment company Raine Group, which was commissioned with the sale, shortlisted four bids.
This includes the offer from the Ricketts family, owners of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.
Chelsea fans protested against this on Saturday because family patriarch Joe Ricketts had attracted attention with Islamophobic statements three years ago.
Raine Group co-founder Joe Ravitch told the Financial Times that he estimates Chelsea and the other top Premier League clubs will each be worth more than $10 billion in five years.
"So I think whoever buys Chelsea today is a real bargain at the prices we're talking about." The shortlisted consortia have until April 11 to submit a final offer.
The decision for a new owner could be made at the end of April.
The sooner Chelsea know, the better off for the club and its supporters.
The team has great potential: they surprisingly won the Champions League last season and are currently third in the Premier League.
However, while the game is guaranteed to continue under the special license, the club is not allowed to make transfers – and it is also not allowed to conclude new contracts with the existing staff.
So if the sale drags on, a number of players could be out of contract in the summer, including German international Antonio Rüdiger.
According to "Sky Sports", his agent recently met with representatives of FC Barcelona.
Tuchel has no choice but to suggest something like normality to his players so as not to further endanger team morale.
"We're concentrating on what we have and on our next games," he said recently when he was asked about his employer's precarious situation, as is so often the case these days.
Planning for the next season is not possible given the current uncertainty, explained the coach.
"That's not why we do it."