UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP F:CHELSEA'S LATEST tilt at the Champions League starts where Roman Abramovich's project began seven years ago, against MSK Zilina of Slovakia, in a competition that still represents the owner's great quest.
John Terry will lead out Carlo Ancelotti’s team tonight as the only survivor of that first competitive Ambramovich side. Ancelotti, the man charged with succeeding where Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant and Luiz Felipe Scolari failed, said that the club’s Russian owner was still desperate to win the European Cup. “Chelsea has come very close to winning the Champions League, maybe this year it happens,” the Italian said.
“This year is very important because the final is at Wembley and no London team has won the Champions League. Maybe that can be good motivation.”
On August 13th, 2003 the then Chelsea manager, Claudio Ranieri, sent out a team to face Zilina – whose ground is on the banks of the Vah River, in a town of around 85,000 people – that included Terry, Carlo Cudicini, Glen Johnson, Marcel Desailly, Frank Lampard, Juan Sebastian Veron and Wayne Bridge. In the 42nd-minute Eidur Gudjohnsen scored the first goal of the Abramovich era. Zilina’s Michal Drahno scored an own-goal after the break and Chelsea had given their billionaire benefactor the best of beginnings.
Abramovich had bought Chelsea that summer from Ken Bates for around €160 million. He then provided €120 million for players, including Veron (€17 million), Joe Cole (€7.5 million) and Damien Duff (€20 million), kick-starting investment that would bring Mourinho to Stamford Bridge after Ranieri was sacked the following May. A stash of silverware followed – Chelsea have won three Premier League titles, three FA Cups and two League Cups.
The most conspicuous missing trophy is the European Cup. In 2006 Abramovich spent €35 million on Andrei Shevchenko, who was supposed to supply the missing magic. But the Ukrainian striker, bought from Milan, had slowed down. He would leave as a failure two months after Abramovich watched Terry, in the 2008 final in Moscow, miss a penalty that would have beaten Manchester United.
Ancelotti was asked yesterday if the players owed Abramovich a Champions League title, given the €700 million or more he has spent at the club. “To win, you have to deserve it not for the past but for the present,” he said. “I’m sure these players will have their revenge. I don’t know if I will be here but these players will win the Champions League. They could win the Champions League with a penalty kick from John Terry. That would be good.”
Last year Ancelotti had no answer to Mourinho’s Inter in the quarter-finals. Being beaten 3-1 on aggregate by the eventual champions may be no embarrassment but Ancelotti revealed a surprising concern. “The problem we had against Inter was our mentality because we lost confidence when they applied pressure,” he said. “We were not able to play our football.” This is hardly what you expect of Terry, Lampard, Didier Drogba and Co.
Ancelotti balks when asked if such disappointments in the Champions League signify a lack of self-belief. “No, I don’t think so,” he said, before sending his team a message. “The first aim is to play the final. We have to show our quality and arrive . . . fully fit. This is the key.”
Ancelotti will give Chelsea’s next generation a chance in the group stage. “We want to use the young players so they play more games,” he said. “We will play Daniel Sturridge from the beginning [against Zilina] as a right-winger.” Yuri Zhirkov will have a run out at the back, in place of the rested Ashley Cole.
Seven years ago Abramovich stayed on his yacht, off the coast of Alaska, to watch his new club beat tonight’s opponents. Seven seasons after buying out Bates, does he still care? “I think so,” said Ancelotti. “He has a lot of passion for Chelsea. He wants the best for this club.”
Guardian Service
CHELSEA: Cech, Ivanovic, Terry, Alex, Zhirkov, Essien, Benayoun, Mikel, Sturridge, Malouda, Anelka. Subs(from): Turnbull, Hilario, Ferreira, Ramires, Kalou, Kakuta, Van Aanholt, Bruma.
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