Mikel, Obasi go to war at the Bridge

John Mikel Obi will be backing his team mates at Chelsea to get all the three points when Schalke 04 with Chinedu Obasi visit Stamford Bridge tonight. Chelsea FC begin their quest for a second UEFA Champions League crown with the visit of FC Schalke 04, who they beat 3-0 home and away in last season’s group stage. These sides meet in the group stage for the second season in succession, with Chelsea having won both meetings 3-0 in the 2013-14 campaign. Delightful... Chelsea’s Nigerian midfielder John Mikel Obi celebrate with team-mates Delightful… Chelsea’s Nigerian midfielder John Mikel Obi celebrate with team-mates Schalke may take some encouragement from the fact that the scorers of five of those goals – Fernando Torres (two), Samuel Eto’o (two) and Demba Ba – have since left Stamford Bridge. José Mourinho says it will be “difficult” for Chelsea FC to better their semi-final run last season as they prepare for FC Schalke 04, who are rueing the loss of their captain. He noted of his team, ” We are far from perfect; we try to improve every day. Obviously there was an evolution from last year to this year, but last season we did well too. We reached the Champions League semi-finals and were fighting for the league. It will be difficult to do better this year but we have the – we are a better team, a better group. The second season [at a club] is a good time for evolution, for improvement and for the team to be in good shape”. Schalke coach, Jens Keller on his part said that, ” It’s very difficult if you lose your captain and for the rest of the defenders he is a very important player. We will just have to put four players into the back four, but we still have a little bit of time to consider our options and what solutions we have open to us. I don’t know how long he will be missing for. He is a very important player for us and he is very confident after winning the World Cup, plus we have lots of games ahead. Hopefully it won’t be too long. We’ve learnt [from previous games against Chelsea] that mistakes get punished. We learnt that home and away last season. We know they’re a top team and now with the new acquisitions they’ve made they are even more so. German football has moved up a step since the summer and that’s great for us. We want at least to emulate what we achieved last season – we want to get through to the knockout rounds. Chelsea will definitely have a say in this season’s competition. They are a very, very good team. They showed that last season and they will challenge again this time. You’ve got to remember that anything is possible in football. When we played against Bayern München [a 1-1 draw on 30 August] people thought we wouldn’t have much of a chance yet we showed what we can do. - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/mikel-obasi-go-to-war-at-the-bridge/#sthash.2yhELgYX.dpuf