Chelsea look forward to greater European tests

The Chelsea fans gathered at the gates to the club's training ground craned their necks in vain yesterday lunchtime. Not only was Hernan Crespo, who is due to join Roman Abramovich's revolution today, absent, so was Alexei Smertin, who signed up for it yesterday.

This was hardly surprising. The club's Harlington training quarters may only be a five-minute detour from Heathrow but no new recruit is likely to be taken there until his contract is secure. Rented from Imperial College, the facilities are quaint even by comparison with Ipswich and Leicester, never mind Chelsea's main domestic and European rivals.

A permanent, hi-tech base in Cobham is planned but until then Chelsea's selling point is the remodelled Stamford Bridge, especially, they hope, on occasions like tonight.

With Crespo and Smertin watching, Chelsea are fully expected to erase the memory of a series of European misadventures with a stroll into the group stages of the Champions' League. Their opponents, the Slovakian non-entities MSK Zilina, already trail 2-0 from the final qualifying round's first-leg and are not expected to deny Abramovich's Chelsea their fourth straight victory under his patronage.

Not that Claudio Ranieri was taking anything for granted yesterday, either publicly, or probably, given recent failures against St Gallen, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Valerenga, privately. "I want everyone to concentrate because we are not in the Champions' League yet and it is very important we get there," the Chelsea manager said. "Zilina are a good team with good organization and counter-attack," he added. That said he is likely to rest the likes of Juan Sebastian Veron and Marcel Desailly, though with players such as Joe Cole and William Gallas replacing them Chelsea will not be noticeably weaker.

Cole, who would be making his first Chelsea start, also spoke well of tonight's opponents but, like John Terry, could not entirely resist the temptation to look beyond them. Cole, whose most glamourous European fixture prior to this tie was in the Uefa Cup against Steaua Bucharest, dreamed of playing at Real Madrid's Estadio Bernabeu or Milan's San Siro. Terry, a travelling reserve on the last occasion Chelsea were in the competition, did likewise. The prospect of meeting either Real or Milan in the next round, which is three-to-one given Chelsea would not be seeded, was seen as "exciting". He added: "It would be great to compare ourselves against the big teams."

Both young Englishmen spoke of how their game would be improved by mixing it with the best. Terry, who admitted he had already been lifted by Ranieri signing players for every position but his, centre-half, said: "European football can bring me on as a player and be a good test for me. It's the biggest competition in the world. In Zilina the other week the Champions' League music starting playing and Marcel [a winner with Marseille and Milan] said 'This is what it is all about'."

Cole also admits he has much to learn but would not comment on whether this included his tactical awareness, which was described as naïve by Sven Goran Eriksson after last week's England match. The 21-year-old restricted himself to saying: "I'll talk to Sven, if I'm selected for the next squad, as to how I can improve my game."

Ranieri, like Eriksson, is yet to be convinced that Cole deserves a starting place but he does speak of him in more glowing terms. "He is a fantastic player who can be among the best in the world," Ranieri said. "He is skilful, intelligent and can do everything on the ball. He can flourish in our environment." Looking around Harlington's windswept acres it was clear one Ranieri meant the playing, rather than physical environment.

Chelsea (probable): Cudicini; Melchiot, Gallas, Terry, Babayaro; Gronkjaer, Lampard, Cole, Duff; Hasselbaink, Gudjohnsen.