Galatasaray v Chelsea: Jose Mourinho targeting '10-0 win' in Champions League first leg after Everton frustration
Mourinho joked that his side would leave little to doubt by beating Galatasaray 10-0 after it took 93 minutes to break down the Toffees on the weekend
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Your support makes all the difference.Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is hoping to put the Champions League last-16 tie against Galatasaray to bed before the second leg by targeting a 10-0 victory when his side travels to Turkey for Wednesday’s match.
The Portuguese was speaking tongue-in-cheek after his side took 93 minutes to break down the Everton defence, when Frank Lampard’s free-kick was turned into his own net by Toffees goalkeeper Tim Howard – John Terry may have had the final touch before the American attempted to save the delivery – but Mourinho clearly has no intention of waiting as long for a goal.
“Ideally I would prefer to go there and win 10-zero,” Mourinho said after the 1-0 victory on Saturday afternoon. “Obviously we have some limitations.”
One of those limitations is the clear shortcomings Chelsea have experienced up-front this season, with Fernando Torres and Samuel Eto’o alternating the lead striker role with little success, while Demba Ba has become the forgotten man at Stamford Bridge this season.
Mourinho will have the strange situation of facing his long-time time go-to man Didier Drogba, with the 35-year-old Ivorian looking to plot the downfall of his former club when the two meet. Mourinho has admitted that the striker still poses a threat to his side despite being in the twilight of his hugely successful career, and that he will find is a “strange feeling” to go up against Drogba.
“He's still good, still a threat," Mourinho explained. “It will be a strange feeling playing against him because we know him so well but as a manager I have come up against him before. We played Chelsea when I was at Internazionale and he was at Galatasaray when Real Madrid played them last season.
“We [Real Madrid] lost in Istanbul. They had us in trouble but Galatasaray is always a difficult place to go to; the crowd is difficult too. Before the game and after the game it will be big respect for Didier, we will always be big friends because he is a real legend of the Chelsea club. But during the game we will not be friends and we know as well that Galatasaray have a very experienced team with many more big players.”
Chelsea will be hoping to triumph where their Premier League rivals Arsenal and Manchester City failed, as both English sides succumbed to 2-0 defeats in their first leg fixtures to Bayern Munich and Barcelona respectively as well as having a player sent-off.
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