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The only truly disappointing result of Chelsea's season so far has been the home loss to Basel to open up the Champions League campaign. What should have been an easy group is suddenly wide open, and now it's going to be a scramble to finish in the top two, let alone first place. Jose Mourinho would always have been targetting three points from the away match against Steaua Bucharest, but now the game has become significantly more important:
We need 12 points to be out of danger in this group. It means we cannot lose this game and normally we have to win it. A draw is not enough.
If we go there and do not win, we are depending on the results of our opponents in the group. We don’t want that, but I know what pressure is. At Inter, I went into the third game of the group knowing we had to win at Dynamo Kiev or we were out. We got the win. I know what pressure is.
The difficulty is when you lose the first game of the Champions League at home, it reduces the chance to have a second mistake. So we have to try and get the three points.
-Source: ESPN Soccernet.
No big surprise there. Win in Bucharest and things look manageable, but a loss or a draw would make the opening stages of this group stage draw a complete and utter disaster -- Chelsea would be at least three points back of the leaders with 1/3rd of our matches played. Nobody wants to be playing in the Europa League again, and so Mourinho had better get this one right.
Last time we travelled to Romania, we lost 1-0. Should be fun!