Camavinga to start against Chelsea, talks about relationship with Tchoumeni

French progidy Eduardo Camavinga is set to start out of position to face Chelsea in the Champions League Wednesday night.

According to the Evening Standard, an injury to Ferland Mendy will leave the defending champions scrambling for a left-back to feature in the tie.

The Blues are preparing to face the Spanish side for the third consecutive year in the competition, with the winner of the whole thing being the victors in the previous years.

This season though, the London side cannot rely on any domestic form to put them in the best mindset to win in Europe.

In Frank Lampard’s first game back in charge of the club, they were beaten by Wolves in a display which showed plenty of signs of what supporters have had to deal with for the rest of the season.

The temporary manager elected to switch up the system somewhat from what Graham Potter had been using in his final weeks at the helm.

In an attempt to get the best out of the likes of Reece James and Ben Chilwell, a back-three has been typically used in order to allow their attacking talents to flourish.

It has already been reported that the Blues are expected to revert back to that system for the Madrid tie, after seeing plenty of success when they faced Borussia Dortmund in the last round of the competition.

They may have an advantage when attacking down the right in particular, with it now being claimed that Camavinga will be starting the game at left-back.

Typically a midfielder, it will certainly be a job for the Frenchman to carry out a job out of position, especially with Chelsea looking to get the most out of James marauding down the right.

Meanwhile, Camavinga has opened up about his friendship and working relationship with teammate Aurélien Tchouameni.

Speaking to RMC Sport, Camavinga described Tchouameni as “like my brother” and explained how he had helped him settle in at the club.

Camavinga also revealed that he had talked to Tchouameni about the possibility of joining Real Madrid before he signed for the club. “We talked about it before, I showed him what it was like,” he said.

Despite playing in the same position, Camavinga insisted that there was no sense of competition between him and Tchouameni. “We don’t talk much about competition or anything like that,” he said. “If you’re better than me, you play. There’s no problem with that, I’m not going to hold it against you because you play.”

He went on to explain that both he and Tchouameni were supportive of each other, regardless of who was playing. “We hope that the other person has a good match. It’s up to you to work if you want to play, so we’re not going to put obstacles in each other’s way,” he said.

Overall, Camavinga’s comments suggest that he and Tchouameni have a strong working relationship based on mutual respect and support. As two of the brightest young talents in French football, they will no doubt continue to push each other to greater heights both at Real Madrid and on the international stage.