Champions League: Jose Mourinho hopes Chelsea beat Schalke to reach knockout stages
Tuesday 25 November 2014 19:11, UK
Jose Mourinho is keen for Chelsea to beat Schalke on Tuesday night to avoid taking qualification for the latter stages of the UEFA Champions League down to the last round of matches.
Chelsea travel to Gelsenkirchen for a top-of-the-table clash with Schalke who are three points behind the west London side in Champions League Group G.
Defeat would leave Chelsea in danger of not reaching the last 32 of the competition, a scenario that Mourinho admits would be devastating for his side.
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“We have two matches to do that (qualify for the Champions League knockout stages) but obviously it will be better for us to qualify on Tuesday,” the Portuguese said.
“We have so many matches in December so it’s better if you can qualify and avoid that pressure. Obviously that would be very good for us but the reality is that we need points and we will try and do that tomorrow.
“Going to the Europa League would be very bad, very bad for the team because a team gets better and the evolution gets faster when you play in the best competitions against the best teams.
“I have repeated that to my players already that going into the Europa League is something that would be very disappointing for us.”
During his pre-match press conference Mourinho was also asked by a German journalist about the prospect of facing former Chelsea player and manager Roberto Di Matteo.
He replied: “I’m not here to speak about Di Matteo. I am here to speak about the game. If you want to do that I am ready.”
Di Matteo guided Chelsea to their only European Cup triumph in 2012. Blues goalkeeper Thibault Courtois, who was on loan at Atletico Madrid at the time admits facing the Italian will not be as sentimentakl an occasion for him as for some of the other Chelsea players.
"I was not there when that happened," he replied when asked about the Champions League win.
"For me it is different from other players who played under him. I was at the time under Atletico and they won the Champions League with him so maybe for the other players they will be happy to see him again but the most important thing for us is to win the game.
"After the game they can be happy with him but we have to be focused and win
the game."
