The Match After earning a good point against Tottenham at White Hart Lane in the Premier League on Saturday, will now have to turn their attention to a must win game as they travel to Romania to face Steaua Bucharest on Tuesday in the Champions League. A shock 2-1 defeat to Basel at Stamford Bridge on Matchday 1 meant that Jose Mourinho’s men are under pressure to pick up the 3 points in the National Arena tomorrow night to get their European campaign back on track. However, their opponent Steaua Bucharest will not make it easy for the Blues as they will be keen too to bounce back from their opening day 3-0 hammering by Schalke in Germany. Both of these sides have only faced each other twice in history and the encounters took place six months ago in the 2012/13 Europa League Last 16. Steaua Bucharest will be confident of picking up the win again as they defeated their English counterpart 1-0 in the first leg back then, before succumbing to a 3-1 defeat in London and ultimately losing the tie 3-2 on aggregate. While it is only Matchday 2 where nothing is decided just yet, neither team can afford to lose if they are to achieve their respective European ambition this season. For Chelsea though, there are massive expectations of them to qualify for the knockout stages this time around, after failing to do so last season, and failing to win here will only increase further pressure from the media and fans on Mourinho before taking on Schalke in a double-header on Matchday 3 and 4. About the Opposition Steaua Bucharest is the biggest club in Romania having the most league titles (24) in the country and is the current holder of the league title and they became the first Eastern European team to win the European Cup/Champions League back in 1986 after beating Barcelona 2-0 in a penalty shootout following a 0-0 draw in 120 minutes of football. The last time the Romanian side, however, played in the Champions League group stage was back in the 2008/09 season where they finished behind Bayern Munich, Lyon and Fiorentina in 4th place after picking up just 1 point from a possible 18. Since they last met, Steaua have made some changes to their team, most notably in selling striker Raul Rusescu to Spanish side Sevilla and defender Vlad Chiriches to Tottenham and both players incidentally scored a goal against Chelsea last season as Rusescu scored the winning goal in Bucharest while Chiriches found the net at Stamford Bridge. Despite the changes, manager Laurențiu Reghecampf has been playing a modern 4-2-3-1 with a very versatile attacking trio, possess deadly counter-attacking abilities on the counter and have an excellent goal ration from set-pieces. The base of the Romanian champion lies in their midfield. Steaua have their best players in Cristian Tanase – a central attacking midfielder who can play on both wings – and two young starlets in Adrian Popa and Nicolae Stanciu – the latter being a promising 20-year old Romanian winger – while also having a reliable pivot of Mihai Pintilii and Alexandru Bourceanu as the usual starters. However, it is notable that the Steaua’s defence are not very solid and they have a goalkeeper - Ciprian Tătăruşanu – that does not transmit much confidence. Further forward, Italian forward Federico Piovaccari has already scored 7 goals in 11 appearances in all competitions despite being striker that does not possess much flair. Past Meetings (vs Steaua Bucharest - P2 W1 L1) 2012/13 Europa League Last 16 First Leg – Steaua Bucharest 1-0 Chelsea (7th March 2013) 2012/13 Europa League Last 16 Second Leg – Chelsea 3-1 Steaua Bucharest (14th March 2013) Team News Steaua Bucharest Laurențiu Reghecampf will be without the services of striker Stefan Nikolic and midfielder Alexandru Chipciu due to injuries but the rest of his squad should be available for selection tomorrow. Chelsea Jose Mourinho is unlikely to make many changes to the starting line-up that started against Tottenham. The goalkeeper and back four should remain the same though one change, however, has been confirmed after the game on Saturday that Juan Mata will start against Steaua Bucharest after impressing against Swindon and Andre Villas-Boas’s side. The Spanish playmaker looks to replace either Frank Lampard or Ramires after the manager looks to reshuffle his midfield pack. The Brazilian is back after serving his 1 game European suspension on Matchday 1. Mourinho will also be forced to make further changes on the offensive side after Eden Hazard was ruled out with a minor ankle injury having picked it up last weekend and both him and his compatriot Kevin De Bruyne have not traveled with the squad to Romania. It looks likely that one of Andre Schurrle or Willian will replace the Belgian with Oscar and Mata set to start. Ahead of them, it still unreasonably clear who will start against Steaua Bucharest. Since Samuel Eto’o joined the former European Champions, he has started the subsequent games that followed – Everton, Basel and Fulham. However, Fernando Torres has featured in the last two matches – against Swindon Town and Tottenham – and has impressed. Mourinho may look to start with Torres once again to continue with the positive momentum he is riding on at the moment. Having said that, the manager will also be aware that the Spanish striker will be facing his one game domestic suspension – could increase to four according to latest reports – against Norwich this weekend and may look instead, to build upon Eto’o’s form and match fitness through this match and for the upcoming crucial games. Probable Lineups: Steaua Bucharest (4-2-3-1): Tatarusanu; Georgievski, Szukala, Gardos, Latovievici; Pintilii, Bourceanu; Popa, Stanciu, Tanase; Piovaccari. Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole; Mikel, Ramires; Mata, Oscar, Schurrle; Torres. Stats and Facts 1. Oscar has scored 6 goals in 7 Champions League appearances for Chelsea. 2. Chelsea have only ever faced 2 Romanian oppositions in European Competitions - CFR Cluj and Steaua Bucharest - and have a record of 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat. 3. Steaua Bucharest have won 9 of their 14 competitive matches this season in all competitions and lost only 1 of them - 3-0 loss to Schalke on Matchday 1. 4. In contrast, Chelsea have only won 4 of their 9 matches in all competitions this season - D3 L2 - and 3 of those wins came at Stamford Bridge. 5. Chelsea have only won 1 of their 4 competitive away matches this season - the 2-0 win against Swindon last Tuesday - but lost just 1 of those games. 6. Steaua Bucharest have scored in all but 1 of their matches this season - in the 3-0 defeat to Schalke. 7. Chelsea have yet to win in Romania in Europe - D1 L1 - while Steaua Bucharest have only lost 1 of their 8 home European matches against English oppositions - W5 D2 L1 - and that defeat came in the 1-0 loss to Arsenal in October 2007. 8. However, Steaua have won only 5 matches against English teams overall in Europe - D4 L7. Betting Odds (Full Time) Steaua Bucharest Win – 18/5 Draw – 11/4 Chelsea Win – 8/11 (Odds obtained from SkyBet) TV Depending on where you are from, you can watch the match in the following channels: United Kingdom: Sky Sports 4HD, Sky GO United States: SiriusXM FC, Fox Soccer 2GO, Fox Sports 2 Middle East: Al Jazeera Sports Brazil: ESPN India: Ten HD Belgium: Belgacom 11+ If your country is not listed above, then you can check out the TV Schedule for the match here. There should also be many match streams that can be found online if your local sports channels are not broadcasting the game or if you happen to be busy and cannot catch the game live, follow TalkChelsea on Twitter as it would provide live match commentary on the action. Click here to view article
