LONDON: As Chelsea's season unravels, its early supremacy becomes a distant memory and the Champions League offers under-pressure manager Carlo Ancelotti the last realistic chance of redemption.
The Blues, who have never won Europe's premier knockout competition, open the knockout phase at FC Copenhagen on Tuesday still reeling from its FA Cup defense being ended Saturday by Everton.
Chelsea's fortunes are also bleak in the Premier League, with the reigning champions languishing in fifth — a place and two points behind the fourth Champions League place — having started with five straight wins.
"Maybe this game will be a good moment to get a result and, obviously, keep our season alive," Ancelotti said before traveling to Denmark. "We are out of the FA Cup, and we haven't done well in the Premier League. To win the Champions League will not be easy, but it brings great motivation for all of us."
Chelsea has reached the semifinals five times in the last seven years while Danish champion Copenhagen is in the last 16 for the first time.
The match is also a chance for Fernando Torres to live up to his 50 million-pound (then $81-million ) transfer fee after the January recruit from Liverpool failed to score in his first two matches.
Ancelotti believes defenders John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic are currently the only players in form.
"We have lost confidence in our play and sometimes it is difficult to move on," said Ancelotti, whose debut Chelsea campaign ended in May with an FA Cup and Premier League double. "I don't have to consider my position. It is the owner that has to consider my position."
A manager discarded by owner Roman Abramovich in 2008, Jose Mourinho, is also under pressure to deliver in Europe: current employer Real Madrid hasn't advanced from the Champions League last 16 stage since 2004.
For Mourinho it is a chance to win the competition with three different clubs, having captured the trophy last season with Inter Milan and with Porto in 2004.
In that final, Porto beat Lyon, the fourth-place French side awaiting Madrid in the last 16 on Tuesday and which ousted the nine-time champions at this stage last season.
While Madrid has lost on its last three visits to Lyon, Mourinho's team has won three straight matches in the Spanish league and is second behind Barcelona.
"I am not losing sleep over Lyon or any other team," Mourinho said.
Inter Milan will be without Diego Milito, the key figure behind the team becoming European champions for the first time in 45 years when the Serie A side faces Bayern Munich on Wednesday in a replay of the 2010 final.
Milito who scored twice in the 2-0 win last May but is out with a hamstring strain. That means Goran Pandev and Samuel Eto'o are likely to start up front.
Inter may be third in Serie A, but is only five points behind AC Milan. Bayern is second in the German standings, but 13 points adrift of Borussia Dortmund.
"We know they were having a difficult time in the league, but they are playing well again now," Inter defender Ivan Cordoba said. "We can't expect Bayern to give us much room so we'll have to work hard to create our own space and get stuck into them."
The fourth match this week sees Premier League leader Manchester United play Wednesday at Marseille, which is severely depleted up front.
France winger Mathieu Valbuena is facing an uphill struggle to be fit after partially tearing knee ligaments and damaging cartilage in his ankle during a training ground accident almost a month ago. In-form striker Andre Pierre Gignac is out after picking up a groin injury in Saturday's 2-1 win over Saint-Etienne — the first time this season Marseille has won three straight league games.
"Their manager, Didier Deschamps, has put together a strong team — a very big, powerful side," United manager Alex Ferguson said. "I watched them play at home against Chelsea in the group stage and they won 1-0. But Chelsea managed to create quite a few chances in the match so we hope we can do the same."
While Ferguson's side tops the Premier League, it struggled to beat non-league club Crawley Town in the FA Cup on Saturday.
The three times European champions are trying to return to the site of their first win in 1968, with May's final being staged again at Wembley Stadium.
The other English teams — Arsenal and Tottenham — both opened the knockout phase with first-leg victories last week, boosting the chances of a Premier League side appearing in the semifinals after missing out last year.
Comments
0 comment