Ruben Loftus-Cheek has been at Chelsea long enough to know famous European comebacks are a part of the club’s DNA, and with another needed against Borussia Dortmund tonight, he expects to see the Blues at our best.
Despite creating several good chances in Germany three weeks ago, we went down 1-0 to a Dortmund side in flying form in 2023.
With away goals no longer counting double in European competition, any margin of victory at the Bridge tonight will at the very least take the tie to extra-time and penalties. A two-goal win will guarantee our spot in the quarter-finals next month.
League form has been indifferent of late but Champions League performances have been good this season, not least the two emphatic victories over AC Milan in the group stage. That gives Loftus-Cheek confidence ahead of tonight’s game.
‘You change from the Premier League to the Champions League and it’s a complete shift in your mind,’ he said.
‘It might be a mental thing. Sometimes us players playing for Chelsea, when the pressure’s on in these big, big games in the Champions League, we always seem to rise to it.
‘Anything can happen in the Champions League. We definitely think we can win on Tuesday. We have a big game coming up and we expect from ourselves to rise to that.’
Loftus-Cheek wants to use Saturday’s win against Leeds as a springboard for the rest of the season, aware footballing fortunes can be fickle. It often doesn’t take much to herald a significant shift in form.
‘We got the win against Leeds, we could win against Dortmund and then just keep winning. We have the quality of players and the manager to do that.
‘We understand we’ve been mediocre, and we’re not just accepting it. We’re hurting from the losses and the draws, because it’s not in us as Chelsea players, so we’re fighting our hardest to turn it around.
‘Of course you’re going to get criticism, especially at Chelsea, but we don’t expect to stay in that poor run of form. We expect as players to stick together and come through it.’