After masterminding that incredible Champions League victory last term, Roberto Di Matteo claims that history can repeat itself as the Blues aim to do the unthinkable and defend their European trophy.
Despite their success last term, along with huge investment in the team, few people believe that Chelsea can notch a second successive Champions League trophy due to historic reasons alone. As long as the competition has been referred to in its current form, no club has managed to defend the competition. Moreover, the last time such a feat did occur was all the way back in 1990, after AC Milan managed to achieve that under Marco van Basten.
Nevertheless, Blues boss Di Matteo remains defiant and claims that it can happen to his club. As well as this, he has told the press that without the victory in last season’s final against Bayern Munich, Chelsea wouldn’t have been able to attract all of the players that have arrived during the big spending summer. He said, “The most important thing was not that we won the Champions League but that it qualified us for the competition again this year. It would have been very difficult [to convince players to sign] because they want to be involved in the biggest club competition in the world so it would have been extremely difficult to attract these players. It has proved impossible in the past [retaining the trophy] but we want to achieve the impossible.”
The Blues’ first hurdle in defending their trophy is against Juventus on Wednesday evening. Already, the omens appear to be positive, with John Terry fit to play despite picking up a knee injury in the game against QPR on Saturday. There is also good news in relation to John Obi Mikel and Juan Mata, with both players in the reckoning following recent problems.