Chelsea vs Napoli (1-3 agg.)...'It's like a Final'

Tomorrow night Chelsea must face a very strong and in form Napoli side in the second leg of the last 16 of the Champions League. Napoli come in to the game on a run of 6 victories, their last a 6-3 thumping of Cagliari. This scoreline reflects Napoli as a team very well. They have an extremely strong attacking threat, probably one of the best in Europe this season in the likes of Cavani and Lavezzi, but as was seen in the first leg, they also have a very slow and statuesque defence, unfortunately our defence against them in the first leg was much much poorer.


If Chelsea were to turn up tomorrow night like they did in Naples, then I would most certainly score our chances of making it through to the next round as zero, in fact I couldn't see much else happening than a pitiful loss at home. However, the last two games under Di Matteo have breathed some new life into the team and more senior players, and has given fans some sense that the storm clouds might be clearing. The two clean sheets against Birmingham and Stoke has given some hope that a combination of Cech, Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill and Cole can provide enough grit and quality in the team to see the return of the 'Fortress' status, for at least one night, to Stamford Bridge; a status which it used to so proudly hold.

I think in reality, there is little chance of preventing Napoli from scoring, and at best I can't see us scoring more than two, the most likely best outcome is 2-1 on the night, seeing Chelsea go out, but at least with less of a whimper. I suspect we will get hit on the counter trying to look for goals though, by a quality Napoli frontline.


Head Prediction: Chelsea 1-2  Napoli                                                                                     Heart Prediction: Chelsea 2-0 Napoli

I think our hearts hope for much more though. The reason why football is so great to watch most of the time is the emotions that fans go through, and up until kick off and I'm sure throughout, anxiety, doubt, belief and  passion will most certainly be flowing through people's bodies. Amongst those at the end, we can only hope that ecstasy is a part of the emotions. We can only hope that we will see a game like that against Barcelona in 2005, we have to take hope from Arsenal's recent game against Milan. The easy option would be to write us off, say that really the game is lost and it is not important anyway, and thus to go to the Bridge tomorrow with no expectations and thus no feeling of dissapointment afterwards. However, I think a result is actually important to our ability to finish fourth this season, which is all important. I think to continue the healing process and belief around the team in the run in, a win would be priceless. Juan Mata has said that this game must be treated like a final, and he is completely right. Thus we must hope and believe, that tomorrow night, Stamford Bridge becomes a Fortress in European football once more.

Come on Chels!!!