With the build-up to our big Champions League quarter-final tie now in full flow, Chelsea legend Pat Nevin writes about the ways the Blues can put the domestic campaign behind them and do the job in the Bernabeu and at the Bridge…
We have all heard the line by now, ‘Chelsea aren’t having a great time, they are monumental underdogs in the Champions League, but wouldn’t it be just like them to win it again, just as they did back in 2012 and 2021, when absolutely no one expected them to do it.’ To be fair, I think our outsider status back then was only marginal but this time the odds are much longer. I don’t really bet but I think that makes sense.
The thing is we still have a fighter’s chance as they say in the trade, well as they say in the boxing trade, but you get my drift. We have been struggling to score goals so that is a problem in itself, but now and again you can have one of those days when almost everything you hit flies in.
Clearly we will have to have one of those nights either tomorrow or in a week’s time, but on the upside, what have we got to lose? Few people outside the club truly expect anything and that can be incredibly liberating if you are a player. I watched Liverpool being hammered by Arsenal the other day, 2-0 down playing terribly, and then the feeling dawned, ‘What have we got to lose?’ Suddenly they had their mojo back.
I suppose some people will suggest a level of straw-clutching but having watched Real Madrid of late, they are far from perfect on their off days. At the weekend there was a 3-2 defeat at home to Villarreal and the La Liga table itself tells a story, with Barcelona miles ahead of their great rivals.
Twelve points at this stage of the season is extraordinary in Spain, especially when you consider that Barca, although a good side, are some distance from their great days back when the likes of Xavi, Iniesta and Messi et al were strutting their stuff.
Counting on experience
Frank Lampard still has to bring something extra special to this tie. Certainly we hope that N’Golo Kante is fit enough and we know well enough that tonight’s opponents aren’t invincible, because we went three goals up last April and won the match in the Bernabeu, even if we narrowly lost the tie.
Look at who started for us outfield in that game and are still available to play tomorrow - Reece James, N’Golo, Mateo Kovacic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Kai Havertz and hopefully Mason Mount. On top of that, Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisic came on. That is eight players who don’t just think it can be done, they know they can get a result over in Spain because they got one there before. Had Thiago Silva been available for this game that would have been nine and would have made us all feel a lot better for having his experience as well as his brilliance.
Champions League experience is a big deal and the most recent experience of the current squad gives yet another straw to add to the small bale we are holding on to. This season, through all the trials and tribulations, the Champions League form has been a release and a relief.
After the early trip-up over in Zagreb against Dinamo, there were four wins and a draw to top the group and of course we saw off Borussia Dortmund in the first knockout stage after that. The German experience was a good one for our younger players and against AC Milan it showed that sometimes even the biggest club names in the world can be overcome in their own home city and their own massive stadiums.
So once again to put a knowingly positive spin on it, a run of five wins, one draw and one defeat – and that being only 1-0 away at Dortmund in a two-legged affair that we won in the end - sounds pretty good in isolation. Even a close defeat away in Madrid would be seen as a positive, with the Bridge ready to bounce when the second leg arrives. The other positive from our European adventure this season is that there have been 12 goals in those last seven Euro games, way above our average scoring rate in the Premier League campaign.
The Frank factor
Another of the limited upsides to the Premier league campaign so far is one I have mentioned before, the small number of goals shipped. Thirty-one in 30 games is only bettered by three sides in the Premier League and they are currently sitting first, second and third. Frank Lampard must make sure that this side of our game is rock solid once more. If we can stifle Benzema and co., as we have other teams, we will still be in the tie come next Tuesday.
This is the sort of stuff Frank will have to say to the players before they walk out. He must make them believe that no matter how the domestic season has gone so far, this is a cup-tie, this is the competition that will now define the season, this can be their competition. If you walk out for this game thinking you are going to be beaten then you almost already are, long before the referee blows his first whistle. Positivity is key.
Frank being welcomed back to Stamford Bridge is of course the other factor to be taken into account. Yes, we will have played at home against Brighton on Saturday, but the Madrid home return leg will be a different matter. Those nights can be special anyway, under the lights, with memories of Frank and others tearing up the best in the business at the forefront of the fans’ minds.
A storyline that has arguably our greatest player coming back and giving us and himself a fairytale ending would be among the greatest tales in the club’s long history.
For it to have a chance to happen there can be no capitulation in Madrid. These positive thoughts may sound delusional to some, little more than a hope to others, but this is football and we all know anything can happen. I am just happy that we have the opportunity to have a go and one thing I am confident of, every player who starts the game will start with some belief.
The final thought is that I was recently at a game between Scotland and Spain. The Spanish had Real Madrid’s Dani Carvajal and Dani Ceballos playing and were pages above us in the international rankings. We Scots were given close to no chance by anyone who knew anything. Stevie Clarke, the former Chelsea legend, led us to a 2-0 win. In football everything is possible.