By David Lee Wheatley
It was a tale of two highly contrasting legs at the
last-eight stage for Chelsea when coming up against the new-found riches and
limitless ambition of Paris Saint-Germain. The French side ran the Blues ragged
in their first meeting, with a 3-1 victory scant reward for their endeavour.
However, Chelsea turned the tables on their confident opponents when recording
a 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge with a late strike from forgotten man Demba Ba,
which secured an away goal triumph few would have predicted on the evidence of
the Parc des Princes clash six days earlier.
Mourinho’s men must now overcome La Liga leaders Atletico
Madrid, who saw off the mighty challenge of compatriots Barcelona in the quarter-finals
and head into the European Cup semi-finals for the first time in 43 years.
Despite the Spanish capital club’s lack of experience at the very highest level
of European football, they do have two Europa League trophy wins in their
locker over the last four years and appear ready for the next step on to the
biggest stage of all.
The west London side sit second in the Premier League
going into this weekend’s round of domestic fixtures and have suffered from
several inconsistencies in their performances throughout the campaign. Atletico
represent a formidable obstacle to their chances of replicating the glorious
Champions’ League success of 2012 and the underdogs tag could well be bestowed
upon the Blues in anticipation of this titanic tie.
Possessing arguably the strongest central defensive pairing
in Europe gives Chelsea great strength within their back-line, but it is often
undermined and put under unnecessary pressure by the antics of the erratic
David Luiz in the defensive midfield role. The Brazilian is undoubtedly a talented
footballer, but he suffers from a lack of discipline and focus, which is
essential in that holding role protecting Gary Cahill and John Terry. Luckily
for Luiz, that all-English partnership has been largely solid as a rock and has
bailed the team out of a hole on numerous occasions this season.
Atletico will pinpoint Luiz as the Blues’ main weakness,
but will also welcome the news that combative full-back Ivanovic is suspended
and chief attacking threat Eden Hazard is doubtful with a calf injury. With the
likes of Samuel Eto’o, Demba Ba and particularly Fernando Torres failing to
find any level of goalscoring form, Mourinho will be desperate for the Belgian
to feature. The Portuguese has favoured a 4-2-3-1 formation throughout the
majority of his first season back in English football, with Hazard crucial on
the left-hand side of the three men deployed behind a main striker. Andre Schurrle
would likely deputise in his absence, but it would be a bitter blow to Chelsea’s
hopes of progressing to lose the majestic former Lille man from the line-up.
Demba Ba has scored two goals in two consecutive games
heading into the weekend and has possibly done enough to keep his place
up-front. However, powerful centre-backs Godin and Miranda won’t exactly spend
sleepless nights worrying about facing the physical ex-Newcastle forward ahead
of Tuesday’s home leg. It will be interesting to see if Mourinho plumps for
former Atletico icon Torres in the hope that playing against his old club could
reignite the fire within the striker’s belly in order to finally get the best
out of the fading star. Despite his troubles in a Chelsea shirt, he is still
revered at the Vicente Calderon and would cause more concern to the Madrid
defence than anyone else in terms of their mental approach to the match.
Suspension to Branislav Ivanovic should mean Cesar
Azpilicueta returns to right-back from the left where he has been impressive,
while Ashley Cole will probably come back into the fold. Ramires and David Luiz
would be expected to begin in the defensive section of the midfield, but there
are whispers of Luiz being deployed at right-back, thus leaving Cole out in the
cold and forcing the surprise inclusion of Mikel. Willian, Oscar, Hazard,
Lampard and Schurrle will battle it out for the three berths behind a lone
frontman and then Ba, Eto’o and Torres will look to secure that one available position
up top. It’s doubtful that Mourinho would experiment again with Schurrle in
that striker role, as it failed to work out to any satisfactory degree when
attempted in the first leg against PSG.
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