UEFA Champions League: Carlo Ancelotti defends Roman Abramovich as Chelsea gear up for Europe
On Wednesday, Chelsea will be looking to successfully start off their UEFA Champions League campaign with a win against MSK Zilna. However, old speculation and rumours have surfaced before the Blues have even kicked off their first match in Europe.
Ever since Roman Abramovich took over at the London club in early 2000s, the main ambition at the club has been to win the UEFA Champions League. Only recently did Chelsea begin to regularly qualify for Europe’s elite club tournament and therefore some have seen their quest to become the European Champions as a bit too pre mature. Nonetheless, it seems that once again the men from Stamford Bridge will be striving to get their hands on the holy grail of European football come May, 2011.
Chelsea have had a torrid luck in the UEFA Champions League in the past five or so seasons. In their first most prominent UEFA Champions League campaign in the 2003-2004 season, under their ex-manager Claudio Ranieri, Chelsea reached the semi-finals of the Champions League only to lose to Monaco. On their route to the semis, Chelsea disposed of their London rivals Arsenal in the quarter finals of the competitions.
Soon after, Ranieri was fired from his job as the manager and the self proclaimed “special one”, Jose Mourinho was brought into the club to guide Chelsea. In his first full season as the club manager, Mourinho led the Blues to a Champions League semi-final again, this time Chelsea came second to their English Premier League rivals Liverpool. In the Premier League, however they ended their barren run as they uprooted Arsenal as the English Premier League champions.
In the 2005-2006 season, Chelsea again embarked on their elusive adventure to win the Champions League, this time again they fell short of the mark as in the round of sixteen. A Ronaldinho inspired Barcelona defeated Chelsea to eventually go on and win the Champions League themselves. In 2006-2007, Chelsea reached the semis only to face Liverpool again. The semi-final match was lost by Chelsea on penalties as Liverpool went on to lose the final match to A.C Milan from Serie A.
Mourinho and Chelsea mutually parted ways in the early part of the 2007-2008 and under their new manager, Avram Grant; Chelsea once again faced Liverpool in the semi-finals. This time the Blues ended up as winners in the extra time of the encounter and faced Manchester United in the final. It turned out to be an unfortunate match for Chelsea as they lost the pen-ultimate match on penalties.
Last season, Chelsea reached the round of sixteen only to lose to Inter Milan. Their present manager however has come out and dispelled all beliefs that their owner Roman is interested in winning the UEFA Champions League alone.
Ancelloti said that, Abramovich is not obsessed with the Champions League only. He told the media that Chelsea’s rich owner wants to win everything. The ex-A.C Milan manager also went onto say that he has no pressure from the higher levels of hierarchy at the London club to focus on the Champions League. Ancelloti went onto establish the fact that Chelsea have reached the semi-finals of the Champions League five times and the final only once, therefore it is natural for the players to care about the competition that they have not won yet.
The Italian manager also played down UEFA Champions League long held superiority over the English Premier League as he said that both of these competitions are important to Chelsea. He said that, Chelsea will aim to improve their style of play in Europe and try to have more continuity in the tournament. Carlo also praised his players like Lampard and Terry and said that their ageing means nothing right now as nowadays in football, 30 years of age means the peak of pinnacle performance of a footballer.
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