Attentions for Chelsea go from Premier League to Champions League this week as the long awaited return of the latter is here.
It’s a Champions League kind of week, and on Wednesday Chelsea face Borussia Dortmund in Germany in the last 16 of the competition.
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Going over there to face a top Bundesliga side is never going to be easy, but Chelsea will certainly fancy their chances ahead of this game, especially with the prospect of being able to return to Stamford Bridge for the second leg.
Graham Potter has been assessing Chelsea’s chances ahead of the game, in some quotes picked up by The Evening Standard late last night.
Potter believes anything is possible in this competition, but he does not want to look past the Dortmund fixture for now, saying that it is not valuable to do so.
He said: “In a knockout competition anything can happen. That’s the thing. It’s two games. I don’t think it’s valuable for us to look past Dortmund.
“We have the capability to beat Dortmund but they are also a strong side with the capability to get a result as well. We have to understand that, go to Dortmund with humility, with respect, and try to get the result.
“Obviously it’s a tough match against a high-quality opponent. But at the same time, our team has got some good players.”
He added: “[This squad] has won the Champions League. They’ve experienced it. They’ll want to fight for the game, that’s for sure, and that’s exciting for us.”
Let’s hope those experienced players can step up and lead the new young signings in the squad!
We won the UCL in ‘21, despite not having a true #9, in large part because our defense was impenetrable. Two years and hundreds of millions in transfers later, we still lack a #9 and our defense is somewhat suspect, so should we really fancy our chances?
As guys like James, Chilwell and Fofana return from injury we can certainly expect to look more solid in back, but the return of Kante would be decisive in terms of recreating the clean sheet machine we saw early on under Tuchel. Can we score enough goals to stay alive in the Champions League until then? There’s always hoping, but I’m not sure I’d put my money on it. [Fingers crossed!]