Emotional night beckons for Chelsea's Mourinho proteges
Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba both owe huge parts of their careers to Jose Mourinho
Tuesday, 16, Mar 2010 01:59
By Matthew Champion.
The return of Jose Mourinho to Stamford Bridge is an unwelcome distraction as Chelsea players prepare for their biggest game of the season so far against Inter Milan in the Champions League.
All but two of current Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti's regular starting XI - Branislav Ivanovic and Nicolas Anelka - are Mourinho era players, with Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, John Terry and Petr Cech all sharing a special bond with the Portuguese.
Cech and his deputy Hilario are both injured tonight however, with third choice keeper Ross Turnbull set to feature in only his second-ever start for the Blues. Ricardo Carvalho is also back for the home side after suffering a hamstring injury, while Thiago Motta and Mario Balotelli are missing for Inter.
Mourinho, who left Chelsea in 2007 after five trophies in three years, holds a 2-1 advantage over Ancelotti from last month's first leg, but the Italian is adamant that tonight will not be about the personalities involved.
"I don't have a problem with Mourinho. I have never had a problem with him," the former AC Milan manager said.
"It's a game between Chelsea and Inter, not me against Mourinho."
Mourinho agreed, saying that he was treating the match as he would any other.
"If we reach the quarter-finals, it'll be an important moment for Inter," the former Porto boss said. "Especially for a team that hasn't won the Champions League for many years or reached the quarter-finals for many years.
"That is all. I have nothing to prove to Chelsea, to Chelsea's players, to Chelsea's fans, to Chelsea's board."
Ancelotti added that despite the obvious emotion of welcoming the club's most successful manager back to Stamford Bridge, there would be no case of divided loyalties.
"It won't be difficult for the fans," he said. "Before the game Mourinho will have a very good reception but after that Chelsea fans are Chelsea fans."
Mourinho, who infamously referred to himself as the "special one" when he arrived in west London in 2004, could not resist twisting the knife at his pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
"I keep winning important things. They keep winning something," he said with reference to the FA Cup won by Guus Hiddink last summer, the only trophy Chelsea have won since Mourinho left.
But Mourinho insisted he had a good relationship with the Chelsea fans and players.
"In football, coming back to an old team, an ex club, it's important to feel like I feel," he said.
"It's one of the most beautiful things in football. They move on, I move on, and life is going on."
Inter, who won back-to-back European Cups in 1964 and 1965, have crashed out of the Champions League first knockout round for the last two seasons, both times at the hands of English opposition.
In 2008/09 they lost 2-0 on aggregate to Manchester United, with Liverpool claiming a 3-0 aggregate victory the year before.