Chelsea will soon learn their fate in the Champions League, with the draw taking place at midday on Friday for the quarter-final and semi-final rounds. It will show the exact route that Graham Potter will have to take if he wants to earn the Blues the coveted trophy for a third time in their history.
The Blues fought back from a one-goal deficit in the round of 16 to overcome Borussia Dortmund in a spirited performance to keep their run of successive quarter-finals going. With the side in the hat, many will be eyeing which teams they want to face and ones they may wish to avoid in the final eight.
For former Arsenal man Paul Merson, he believes there's two sides the west London club should be wary of. Writing for Sky Sports he said: "If the Champions League quarter-final draw goes their way, bar Man City and Bayern Munich, I don’t think too many teams will want to play Chelsea. If they don’t meet those two then I think they’ll get through to the semi-finals."
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Manchester City and Bayern Munich appear to be clear favourites, but cup competitions often throw that out of the window as momentum could mean everything. The recent change in form for Chelsea could work in their favour and Merson isn't the only one that believes that.
Joe Cole agreed with his assessment on BT Sport after the 2-0 last-16, second leg win over Dortmund, saying: “Enjoy it, enjoy it. Little patterns of play were starting to work. Kai Havertz coming into the game, he was absolutely outstanding tonight. Forget what it took to retake that penalty. You won’t want to be playing Chelsea in the next couple of weeks.”
As for Rio Ferdinand, the former defender is on the side of cautious optimism, believing the Blues aren't favourites but confidence is picking up.
He told BT Sport: "I wouldn’t put them anywhere near being favourites, no disrespect, just because of the form and where other teams are in comparison. The difference this result can make for confidence right now is great, but you have to take it game by game. You can’t look any further than this weekend.”
It remains to be seen how Chelsea fare in the remainder of the competition and whether the draw will work in their favour or not, but so long as they are in the competition, they have a chance.
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