Ashley Cole still wants European success
Chelsea defender Ashley Cole has said that he is determined to succeed in Europe after losing two Champions League finals, and that he is pleased with the quality of football on display at Stamford Bridge.
Cole, who has won six FA Cups, more than any other player in history, and three Premier League titles, is still hungry for silverware.
The left-back formed an indispensable part of the Arsenal team that went unbeaten throughout the 2003-04 season. He has also been capped more times for England than any other player in his position, and is now desperate to lift the Champions League trophy
after losing the 2006 and 2008 finals.
"That's why you want to get into football, you want to achieve things and win things," Cole told Chelsea's official website. "I broke a few [records] and you don't realise what you've done, probably until I finish my career when I'll look back and believe
I've done these things... To this day I still think about the Champions League finals that I've lost."
His next European fixture is on Tuesday, 19 October, when Chelsea travel to face Spartak Moscow at
Luzhniki Stadium in the Russian capital,the same venue where Chelsea lost the 2008 final to Manchester United after a penalty shootout.
Ancelotti's style a confidence boost
Since that dramatic loss, Chelsea has seen two managers, Avram Grant and Guus Hiddink, come and go.
Under Carlo Ancelotti, who took charge of the London club last summer, Chelsea are playing a different style of football, one that is based on possession and more attractive on the eye than that of his predecessors.
Cole, who played a similar game under Arsene Wenger while at Arsenal, said Ancelotti's optimistic tactics have served to boost the team's confidence.
"Before we'd go 2-0 up and sit back, but now with the players we have we want to kick on and score more goals. We are playing more fluently and our movement is better, and it's showing with how many goals we are scoring."
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