Calling all armchair managers! The time has come to pit your wits against Carlo Ancelotti and see whether he agrees with your team selection for Chelsea's upcoming Champions League crunch match against Inter Milan — and nemesis Jose Mourinho.
After missing as many as seven players for the weekend's 2-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers, Ancelotti is hopeful of welcoming back at least a few of them for the game at the Guiseppe Meazza on Wednesday.
Frank Lampard should be fit, and both Alex and Juliano Belletti are available for selection. But the big blow will be the absence of Yury Zhirkov, who has not made the trip to Italy after failing to recover from the injury he sustained in the game at Molineux at the weekend.
Add to that the fact that Paulo Ferreira is not registered for the Champions League, and Ancelotti has some full-back quandaries to ponder ahead of the tie.
The reportedly unsettled Ashley Cole is a long-term absentee, while both Michael Essien and Jose Bosingwa are still a little way from a return to training.
This is one of the most important games of the season for Chelsea, so it seems unlikely that Ancelotti will go with anything other than his best available side. How he handles his full-back situation is the biggest decision he will have to make.
Availability:
Goalkeepers: Petr Cech, Henrique Hilario, Ross Turnbull.
Defenders: John Terry, Ricardo Carvalho, Alex, Branislav Ivanovic, Jeffrey Bruma.
Midfielders: John Obi Mikel, Juliano Belletti, Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack, Florent Malouda, Joe Cole, Gael Kakuta.
Attackers: Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka, Salomon Kalou, Daniel Sturridge, Fabio Borini.
Leave your team selection in the comments below, using semi-colons to separate positions and working from left-to-right. For example, here’s Goal.com UK’s preferred lineup, using a 4-3-3 formation:
Cech; Ivanovic, Terry, Carvalho, Belletti; Lampard, Mikel, Ballack; Malouda, Anelka, Drogba.
Substitutes: Hilario, Alex, Bruma, J. Cole, Kakuta, Kalou, Sturridge.
This team virtually picks itself, considering the squad available to the former AC Milan boss. Ivanovic should move across to left-back in the absence of Zhirkov or Cole, where his defensive prowess can be used to best effect against Inter's dangerous right-back Maicon.
Juliano Belletti will probably be asked to fill in at right-back, in preference to the untested Bruma. Mikel will anchor the midfield as usual — with a particular focus on Wesley Sneijder — while Ballack and Lampard fulfil box-to-box duties in the centre.
Mourinho has had a tendency in the past to play defensively at home, perhaps keen to avoid conceding an important away goal. If that proves the case on Wednesday, expect Malouda and Anelka to be asked to push forward when the Blues have the ball, and for Malouda to drop back and become a fourth midfielder when defending.
Inter Defender Lucio Affirms Importance Of Chelsea Clash
The Brazilian knows that his team-mates will give their all to win.
Inter stopper Lucio knows the importance of the Nerazzurri defeating Chelsea in the Champions League later this evening, when the two sides meet at the San Siro.
The Brazilian believes that Blues striker Didier Drogba will be one player that his team will have to watch out for.
"It is the moment to discuss the Champions League, and nothing else," the defender said to Datasport. "I believe that the match will be very important, and it is for this reason that we want to win at all costs.
"The players will be giving their utmost to win. The determination that we will put in will be the same, but some people will need to be extra cautious, as they are on yellow cards.
"But this factor will not change our way of playing, nor aid in what the final result might be.
"Drogba is an excellent player, and we will need to pay attention to him, but he is like any other great player here at Inter," concluded Lucio.
Prediction on this match : inter 0 vs 0 chelsea
