It’s so easy to get distracted by referees, isn’t it? Yesterday it was Ovrebo’s over-quick return to the Champions League that got my goat, today it was a sanctimonious article by Graham Poll in the Daily Mail. He wanted all the attention while he was a referee – turns out he hasn’t changed in retirement.
More important than all that though, thankfully there’s some football for us to watch today as the Champions League returns. It just goes to show how spoilt us Chelsea fans have become that I find it hard to ‘get into’ the Champions League until the knockout stages, but in reality this is because the group stages have largely become a formality for English sides over the past few years. The lack of excitement is probably a good thing.
Tonight Chelsea entertain the 2004 Champions of Europe, Porto, who currently sit at number 18 in Europe according to UEFA’s coefficient system. Not long ago this would have been a very big game indeed, but if fans or players don’t take this seriously they’ll be doing the fixture a disservice.
Chelsea have started well in the Premier League, but Porto haven’t started badly either. Despite once again being crowned Portuguese champions last year, they were relatively active in the transfer window spending around £20m and bringing in ten players. The turnover doesn’t seem to have hampered their performances on the pitch so far: Porto currently sit third in the Liga Sagres having won three and drawn one of their opening games, scoring eleven goals along the way. Their manager, Jesualdo Ferreira, has a reputation for being a little cautious so we can expect Chelsea to have the lion’s share of possession, but we can also expect Porto to be more effective on the counter than Stoke were on Saturday. With players like Hulk and Belluschi, Chelsea’s back four will need to be on their game.
Ancelotti, however, has some decisions to make. Drogba of course is suspended following his outburst after last season’s semi-final and, with Kalou being almost anonymous up front against Stoke (I prefer him coming from wide positions as part of a front three), Ancelotti could choose to give Sturridge his competitive debut in Chelsea blue. The loss of Drogba presents more of a problem than purely personnel though: I’d argue that the recently successful (albeit very flexible) 4-3-2-1 formation won’t be as effective with Anelka or Sturridge at its tip and I’d expect Carlo to revert to something that allows the team to play with a more traditional looking front two.
Bosingwa is also banned, but Ancelotti has plenty of options at right back and either Beletti or Ivanovic will fill in. Having been rested at the weekend Essien will probably take Mikel’s place in the starting 11, but Joe Cole and Zhirkov are still not match fit and won’t make the bench. Youngsters Borini, Bruma and Hutchinson could find they get run outs should Chelsea find themselves comfortably ahead.
It will be an interesting game but, whilst an in form Porto will have some ‘spark’ up front, Chelsea should just about have enough to see off their challenge – even without Drogba. As with the Stoke game at the weekend, there really is only one objective – to take three points. There’s plenty of talk in the media about how Ancelotti is aiming to win the Champions League, but this is a competition that is neither won nor lost in September. Win the game, avoid injuries, and move as quickly as possible towards qualification – that’s the order of the day.
bridgeviews.co.uk predicted line up: Cech, Ashley Cole, Terry, Carvalho, Ivanovic, Essien, Ballack, Malouda, Lampard, Anelka, Sturridge
bridgeviews.co.uk predicted score: 2-1, Lampard to score first
One final point – anyone who feels like watching the Juventus v Bordeaux game this evening rather than the Chelsea game, please do get in touch to let us all know about how our pal Ovrebo gets on. Rumour has it that the Norwegian being given that game to referee and Platini being a Juve fan are entirely coincidental…
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