Tuesday, 18 March 2014

Chelsea vs Galatasaray 'live' Champions League coverage: Eto'o, Oscar start for Chelsea, Drogba for Galatasaray

Drogba says Turkish club capable of knocking out Mourinho's side 

Oscar and Samuel Eto'o both start for Chelsea in the only changes from the first leg. Didier Drogba thankfully starts for Galatasaray.
Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta, Ramires, Lampard, Oscar, Hazard, Willian, Eto'o.

Subs: Schwarzer, Luiz, Torres, Mikel, Schurrle, Ba, Kalas.
Galatasaray:Muslera, Alex Telles, Chedjou, Kaya, Eboue, Felipe Melo, Selcuk Inan, Sneijder, Yekta Kurtulus, Drogba, Burak
Subs: Ceylan, Burdisso, Gulselam, Hajrovic, Bulut, Balta, Sarioglu.

Referee: Felix Brych (Germany). 


Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta, Ramires, Lampard, Oscar, Hazard, Willian, Eto'o.

Subs: Schwarzer, Luiz, Torres, Mikel, Schurrle, Ba, Kalas.

Galatasaray:Muslera, Alex Telles, Chedjou, Kaya, Eboue, Felipe Melo, Selcuk Inan, Sneijder, Yekta Kurtulus, Drogba, Burak

Subs: Ceylan, Burdisso, Gulselam, Hajrovic, Bulut, Balta, Sarioglu.

Referee: Felix Brych (Germany).  

Cont reading


STAT ATTACK 

Didier Drogba returns to Chelsea for the first time since his last kick for the Blues sealed victory over Bayern Munich in 2012 champion  League final.

The Ivory star has won Premier League (2005, 2006, 2010), Champions League (2012) and FA Cup (2007, 2009, 2010, 2012) with Chelsea.

Drogba netted 157 goals in 342 appearances during an eight-year spell at Chelsea.

Galatasaray have lost only one of their last 23 games in all competitions but have not won in eight visits to English clubs, drawing three and losing five.

TEAM NEWS
Ramires and Willian are likely to return for Chelsea's Champions League last-16 second leg game against Galatasaray on Tuesday, despite their domestic dismissals at Aston Villa on Saturday.
Ashley Cole (knee) did not train on Monday but David Luiz (groin) did ahead of the match at Stamford Bridge, with the tie finely poised at 1-1.
Luiz could replace the cup-tied Nemanja Matic in central midfield.
Former Blues striker Didier Drogba, 36, is expected to start  for the visitors, but Aydin Yilmaz, Eray Iscan, Gokhan Zana and Emre Colak are all sidelined through injury.
Buoyed by their away goal to Galatasaray and the return to the squad of striker Samuel Eto'o and midfielder Frank Lampard, Chelsea have every reason to feel confident of progressing to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Although they had their share of problems in their defeat - their first in 15 games - to struggling Aston Villa on Saturday where Willian and Ramires were red-carded and Jose Mourinho was sent from the dugout, they continue  to rule the Premier League table.  

But Mourinho's side return to Stamford Bridge this evening for their second leg round of 16 Champions League match with a slender advantage thanks to a Fernando Torres goal in Istanbul, although the Turkish club equalised through Aurelian Chedjou.

It won't be smooth sailing though for the men in blue as former Chelsea great Didier Drogba is capable of surprises.

He has done it on many occasions for his former club and who better than Mourinho is witness to it.

The Ivorian is definitely the player to be watched and marked as he already has 14 goals for his club in all competitions.

Chelsea are yet to lose to Galatasaray in their three meetings, having beaten them twice and drawn once.

But Drogba believes that if Galatasaray are firing on all cylinders they are capable of knocking Chelsea out.

"If we are focused, if we are well physically, then we can make it difficult for many great teams," Drogba told the UEFA website.

Roberto Mancini's side are third in the Turkish Championship.

At the moment Chelsea seem to be the only Premier League side to hold the flag up after the ouster of Manchester City and Arsenal.

Barcelona, Atletico, Bayern and Paris St Germain having booked their place in the last eight and with the final four places in the quarter-finals up for grabs this week, Galatasaray stand a better chance. 
 
  Manchester United, who trail Greek side Olympiakos 2-0, Zenit St Petersburg who are behind Dortmund 4-2 and Schalke, who have been written off already after their 6-1 mauling at the hands of Real Madrid.

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