Jose
Mourinho is keen for Chelsea to beat Schalke on Tuesday night to avoid
taking qualification for the latter stages of the UEFA Champions League down
to the last round of matches.
Chelsea travel to Gelsenkirchen for a top-of-the-table clash with Schalke
who are three points behind the west London side in Champions League Group
G.
Defeat would leave Chelsea in danger of not reaching the last 32 of the
competition, a scenario that Mourinho admits would be devastating for his
side.
“We have two matches to do that (qualify for the Champions League knockout
stages) but obviously it will be better for us to qualify on Tuesday,” the
Portuguese said.
“We have so many matches in December so it’s better if you can qualify and
avoid that pressure. Obviously that would be very good for us but the
reality is that we need points and we will try and do that tomorrow.
“Going to the Europa League would be very bad, very bad for the team because
a team gets better and the evolution gets faster when you play in the best
competitions against the best teams.
“I have repeated that to my players already that going into the Europa
League is something that would be very disappointing for us.”
During his pre-match press conference Mourinho was also asked by a German
journalist about the prospect of facing former Chelsea player and manager
Roberto Di Matteo.
He replied: “I’m not here to speak about Di Matteo. I am here to speak about
the game. If you want to do that I am ready.”
Di Matteo guided Chelsea to their only European Cup triumph in 2012. Blues
goalkeeper Thibault Courtois, who was on loan at Atletico Madrid at the time
admits facing the Italian will not be as sentimentakl an occasion for him as
for some of the other Chelsea players.
"I was not there when that happened," he replied when asked about the
Champions League win.
"For me it is different from other players who played under him. I was at
the time under Atletico and they won the Champions League with him so maybe
for the other players they will be happy to see him again but the most
important thing for us is to win the game.
"After the game they can be happy with him but we have to be focused and win
the game."
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