official website: "The season started off a bit strange.
"If you’d said we would have been here at the start of the season then we probably wouldn’t have believed you, but it just shows what’s possible with hard work, everyone getting their heads down and working as a team.
"When you come to the later stages of competitions, you know you’re going to come up against top-class teams. We need to be ready and at our best right from the start."
Can Chelsea topple Real?
James believes anything is possible from this point, with the Blues ready for the challenge that Real Madrid will pose.