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CHELSEA FC: PRE-MATCH: CHELSEA v OLYMPIACOS

/noticias.info/ As the Chelsea look to join the final eight in this season's Champions League, club historian Rick Glanvill and statistician Paul Dutton have been comparing the best with the best.

Rick picks out some positive pointers for tonight's game.


Chelsea go into this vital First Knockout Round decider at Stamford Bridge with confidence restored following the club's biggest ever pounding of the Hammers at Upton Park.

That 4-0 margin eclipsed the high-water mark set last season, 4-1, and meant that we have now scored notched four or better against the Irons in five of the last six Premier League campaigns in which we've met.

Some of José Mourinho's achievements will not be so easily expunged, however. And going into the latest round of European matches last night, Chelsea's consistency in elite competitions over the last five years means the Blues are Europe's top performing club.

Our table is based on results in top domestic leagues as well as Uefa Champions League matches since 2003. We included the highest-ranking teams in Europe's major leagues (England, Italy, Spain, Germany, France and Portugal), drawing a final percentage of games won and drawn over that period. We excluded sides that had spent fewer than three seasons in the Champions League, and ruled out qualifying rounds. It is a measure of the best, against the best.

The resulting figure shows the percentage of games each club has played without losing. Chelsea tops the list with a remarkable 87 per cent of matches either won or drawn. The Blues have also played more and won more games than any other side in the two competitions over the five seasons. (The full table is published below.)

Second in the rankings are current Serie A leaders Internazionale on 86 per cent, followed by a group on 85 per cent which includes Arsenal, who won five fewer matches than Lyon and have drawn the most of any elite side. Manchester United trail in eight place on 82 per cent, while Liverpool's Premier League failures leave them as far down as 12th.

These statistics provide compelling evidence of how extraordinarily well Chelsea, even though we are still looking for a Champions League title, have competed in the toughest challenges on offer each season during the Roman Abramovich era.

Interestingly, Uefa's own current team rankings place Chelsea second behind AC Milan. Unlike our table, these are based solely on results in all European competitions since 2003/4, with additional points awarded on the basis of the general performance of all clubs from each country (the 'country coefficient').

Liverpool are third on that list, then Barcelona and Arsenal, with Manchester Utd ninth. Tonight's visitors Olympiacos are in 38th place.

Should Arsenal's win in the San Siro be followed by victory for Chelsea tonight, the Blues could soon top the Uefa European club rankings for the first time ever.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Tables are only measures of past results, and Olympiacos showed in the first leg in freezing Athens that they are certainly capable of shutting Chelsea out and maybe of stealing an away goal, certainly from a set piece. With the tie poised at 0-0 that would mean the Blues needing to score twice or more because away goals count double at the end of normal time.

Prior to the bounty of the Boleyn Ground that obligation might have caused concern - Chelsea had managed to score more than once against only Wigan and Huddersfield Town in the previous nine matches. But the malfunctions of February looked to have been blown away in Saturday's slaughter.

Allowing for one or two players who are not quite 100 per cent ready, Chelsea now have a near full-strength squad to choose from. Andriy Shevchenko joined two senior players recently removed from the Champions League squad, Steve Sidwell and Claudio Pizarro, in playing a reserve game on Monday evening, and can be ruled out. Almost everyone else can be ruled in.

It is upfront where the crucial choice lies for Avram Grant. He has to decide whether to stick with the familiar 4-3-3 using wide forwards, or whether to find a different line-up to accommodate both top-class strikers at his disposal.

Didier Drogba, unused at the weekend, is our leading goalscorer in this competition, and Nicolas Anelka was so influential in the West Ham win. This isn't about whether the two can play together, more about if Chelsea are ready to switch to 4-4-2 and 'fix' a system that - on Saturday's evidence, if not Wembley's - is far from broke.

The choices of the flank players are vital too. Joe Cole and Salomon Kalou were both outstanding at Upton Park having started the League Cup final on the bench. Joe would hope to break his odd sequence of scoring every eighth game this year; Salo has scored six in ten games for club and country.

However, Florent Malouda has produced some of his most telling contributions in this competition and Shaun Wright-Phillips proved away to Rosenborg that he can devastate vulnerable defences even in the league of champions.

The other main question marks relate to the Chelsea midfield (where SWP also performed well back in January). Michael Ballack and Frank Lampard proved once again at the weekend that they blend well together, can dominate the game and set up goals for each other, especially with Claude Makelele, so disciplined positionally, behind them.

However, the Chelsea manager may prefer the drive and power of Michael Essien, who has been one of Chelsea's top European performers over the last two years - even at right back. Young John Mikel Obi has often looked born to this elite competition as well.

Although the pressure to succeed is on Chelsea, there is a burden of expectation on Olympiacos too, and they managed only a disappointing 1-1 home draw in the Superleague at the weekend.

With one or two key players rested, the Piraeus side took a second-minute lead through centre-back Julio Cesar's header, then sat back and were punished when sixth-placed Asteras Tripolis equalised on 33 minutes. Despite the visitors having a defender sent off five minutes into the second half, Olympiacos managed only a shot against the bar and the draw allowed arch-rivals Panathinaikos to leapfrog them to top slot.

Worse news for the Greeks was the dislocated shoulder injury suffered in the match by former Newcastle United and Portsmouth forward Lomano LuaLua, whose experience of English football might have been useful to them.

With Terry and Lampard on the bench, the 0-0 first leg in the Georgios Karaiskakis stadium was a dour affair of few chances - a lot more flares than flair. One of the Olympiacos players who came closest to breaking the deadlock is also likely to miss the return match. Argentinean wide man Luciano Galletti had a fierce shot blocked and sliced a volley wide from a penetrating cross, but has now been ruled out with a thigh strain.

Stealthy midfielder and top scorer Ieroklis Stoltidis was another danger. He was the architect in the Greek title-holders' first ever away win the Champions League with two goals in their 3-0 win at Werder Bremen, and created the clearest chance of a goal against the Blues with a clever near-post header that flashed past the post.

He, along with Olympiacos's Serbia internationals Predrag Djordjevic and Darko Kovacevic will be the main danger of threat to Chelsea's passage into a fourth quarter-final in five seasons. Chelsea will have to be acutely alert at set pieces.

Never the less, if there's one nation that understands the weight of history it is the land of Herakles and Homer. Manager Panagiotis Lemonis will be aware that Olympiacos have lost all of the seven games they have played in England to date, and in every case except one - 0-2 at Liverpool in 2001 - they conceded three or four goals in the process. They even lost 0-4 to West Ham once.

That tradition suggests Chelsea's European odyssey should continue into the spring.


CHELSEA V OLYMPIACOS - Paul Dutton with the hard facts foundation to the story.

Below is the table showing results for the top teams from the major European leagues in domestic league and Uefa Champions League matches, from the beginning of 2003/04 to date (excluding Champions League qualifying games).

At least three seasons in the Champions League were required to qualify. The percentage shown refers to games undefeated.
Chelsea have played and won more than any other club.

The Euro Elite table
1. Chelsea P 230 W 148 D 53 L 29 - 87%
2. Inter P 215 W 127 D 57 L 31 - 86%
3. Lyon P 224 W 137 D 54 L 33 - 85%
4. Arsenal P 226 W 132 D 61 L 33 - 85%
5. Barcelona P 214 W 131 D 50 L 33 - 85%
6. Porto P 195 W 120 D 46 L 29 - 85%
7. AC Milan P 229 W 136 D 57 L 36 - 84%
8. Man Utd P 221 W 140 D 42 L 39 - 82%
9. Bayern Munich P 194 W 112 D 47 L 35 - 82%
10. Real Madrid P 219 W 128 D 42 L 49 - 78%
11. Roma P 197 W 98 D 53 L 46 - 77%
12. Liverpool P 220 W 113 D 54 L 53 - 76%
13. Werder Bremen P 186 W 106 D 33 L 47 - 75%
14. Valencia P 200 W 93 D 54 L 53 - 74%

Although the Scottish Premier does not qualify as a major European league, Celtic and Rangers stats are included for interest, as follows:

Celtic P 186 W 136 D 23 L 27 - 85%
Rangers P 179 W 111 D 37 L 31 - 83%


Ricardo Carvalho, if selected, will make his 150th appearance in Chelsea blue.

Chelsea have conceded the fewest goals in this year's competition with two and have gone 564 Champions League minutes since last conceding a goal, to David Villa in Valencia on October 3rd on Matchday Two.

We are looking to extend our club unbeaten record at Stamford Bridge in all competitions to 60 games since our last defeat on February 22nd 2006 when Barcelona beat a 10-man Chelsea 2-1 in the Champions League. That has been our only home defeat in the last 118 games since February 2004.

Olympiacos have not suffered defeat for 21 games in all competitions in a run stretching back to November 10th and have only lost two of 15 away games this season (Real Madrid 2-4 and Asteras Tripolis 0-1).

Olympiacos had not recorded a single away win in 31 attempts in the Champions League prior to this season but have achieved a victory twice in this campaign at Bremen and Lazio after going behind in both games.

Chelsea host a Greek side in Uefa competition for only the second occasion. Having drawn 1-1 in Salonika against Aris in the Cup Winners' Cup first round first leg in September 1971 we comfortably ran out 5-1 winners at Stamford Bridge with goals from John Hollins (two), Ian Hutchinson (two) and Marvin Hinton in front of a 40,425 crowd.

Olympiacos have lost on all their previous visits to England in European competition.

Olympiacos's away record against English clubs:
1965/66 Cup Winners' Cup last 16 - West Ham L 0-4
1972/73 Uefa Cup 2nd round - Tottenham L 0-4
2000/01 UefaCup 3rd round - Liverpool L 0-2
2001/02 Champions League group - Man Utd L 0-3
2002/03 Champions League group - Man Utd L 0-4
2004/05 Champions League group - Liverpool L 1-3
2004/05 Uefa Cup last 16 - Newcastle L 0-4

Olympiacos's last five years in Europe
2002/03 Champions League - first group stage
2003/04 Champions League - group stage
2004/05 Champions League - group stage, Uefa Cup - round of 16
2005/06 Champions League - group stage
2006/07 Champions League - group stage

Olympiacos's European Cup record is played 101, won 29, drawn 25, lost 47.

In domestic competition they won the Hellenic Super League title for the third straight season in 2006/07 and the tenth time in the last eleven campaigns. Since their formation in 1925 they have won 35 league titles and 22 national cups.

No club from Greece has yet won a major European prize with Olympiacos still to reach the last four of either the Champions League or Uefa Cup.

Their best showing in the Champions League was when they reached the 1998/99 quarter-finals before losing to Juventus. Olympiacos have qualified for the group stage for 11 seasons in a row.

Olympiacos's last six domestic games
Feb 3 Apollon Kalamarias (a) D 0-0
Feb 10 Panionios (a) W 4-0
Feb 16 Ergotelis (h) W 1-0
Feb 23 PAOK (a) D 1-1
Feb 27 Iraklis (Cup QF h) W 2-0
Mar 1 Asteras Tripolis (h) D 1-1

Olympiacos dropped to second in the Hellenic Superleague one point behind Panathinaikos after the weekend's draw. Olympiacos got off to a perfect start on Saturday when defender Julio Cesar gave them the lead with a header after just three minutes. However Asteras equalised on the half hour and had a player sent off early in the second half. Team: Sifakis; Zewlakow, Pantos, Julio César, Leonardo (Konstantinou 85), Mendrinos (Belluschi 69), Ledesma, (Sisic 56), Stoltidis, Djordjevic (c), LuaLua, Kovacevic.

Olympiacos entered this seasons Champions League at the Group stage. They finished second in Group C but level on 11 points with Real Madrid with Bremen third on six and Lazio last with five.

Group C results
Sep 18 Lazio (h) D 1-1
Oct 3 Werder Bremen (a) W 3-1
Oct 24 Real Madrid (a) L 2-4
Nov 6 Real Madrid (h) D 0-0
Nov 28 Lazio (a) W 2-1
Dec 11 Werder Bremen (h) W 3-0
Round of 16
Feb 19 Chelsea (h) D 0-0

Appearances Galletti 7, Nikopolidis 7, Stoltidis 7, Antzas 6, Djordjevic 6, Ledesma 6, LuaLua 6, Patsatzoglou 6, Torosidis 6, Zewlakow 5+1, Pantos 4+1, Kovacevic 3+4, Julio César 3+1, Bravo 3, Domi 2, Mendrinos 0+3, Nunez 0+3, Mitroglou 0+2, Archubi 0+1, Belluschi 0+1, Konstantinou 0+1, Leonardo 0+1.

Goals Galletti 3, Kovacevic 3, Stoltidis 3, César 1, Patsatzoglou 1.

Olympiacos have played 34 games in all competitions winning 21, losing two and drawing 11. They have scored 60 goals, conceded 23, have kept 17 clean sheets and failed to score six times.

Chelsea's overall record in European competition is played 137, won 73, drawn 36, lost 28. This is our 11th season in succession in Europe.

In our sixth appearance in the Champions League, we maintained our record of always qualifying for the knockout rounds and for the fifth time in six attempts finished as group winners. We were semi-finalists in 2003/04, 2004/05 and 2006/07, quarter-finalists in 1999/2000 and reached the last 16 in 2005/06.

Our Champions League results are as follows:
Sep 18 Rosenborg (h) D 1-1
Oct 3 Valencia (a) W 2-1
Oct 24 Schalke (h) W 2-0
Nov 6 Schalke (a) D 0-0
Nov 28 Rosenborg (a) W 4-0
Dec 11 Valencia (h) D 0-0
Feb 19 Olympiacos (Rd of 16 a) D 0-0

Appearances Essien 7, J Cole 6+1, Makelele 6+1, Cech 6, Alex 5+1, Drogba 5, Malouda 5, Belletti 4+1, Lampard 4+1, Carvalho 4, A Cole 4, Terry 4, Bridge 3, Ferreira 3, Kalou 2+4, Shevchenko 2+2, Wright-Phillips 2+2, Mikel 1+2, Ben-Haim 1+1, Cudicini 1+1, Pizarro 1+1, Ballack 1, Anelka 0+1, Sidwell 0+1.

Goals Drogba 4, J Cole 2, Alex 1, Malouda 1, Shevchenko 1

Chelsea have played 44 games in all competitions winning 28, drawing 12 and losing four. We have scored 72 goals, conceded 28 and have kept 25 clean sheets. We have failed to score on nine occasions.

Chelsea have played 65 games in the Champions League proper (excluding qualifying games). We have won 32, drawn 19 and lost 14.

Uefa club competition all time top scorers: Filippo Inzaghi (Parma, Juventus, AC Milan) 64, Gerd Muller (Bayern Munich) 62, Raul (Real Madrid) 62, Andriy Shevchenko (Dynamo Kiev, AC Milan, Chelsea) 60, Ruud van Nistelrooy (PSV, Man Utd, Real Madrid) 57, Eusebio (Benfica) 56.

European Cup / Uefa Champions League all time top scorers: Raul (Real Madrid) 60, Ruud van Nistelrooy (PSV, Man Utd, Real Madrid) 57, Andriy Shevchenko (Dynamo Kiev, AC Milan, Chelsea) 56, Alfredo Di Stefano (Real Madrid) 49, Eusebio (Benfica) 47.

The referee, Manuel Mejuto González is from Spain. He holds good and bad memories for Chelsea in this competition, having officiated the first leg (1-1 at the Bridge) of the 2004 quarter-final against Arsenal, as well as the semi-final last season at Anfield. He was also in charge when Liverpool beat Olympiacos 3-1 on Merseyside in 2004.

There are no suspensions on either side. Michael Essien has been booked twice and is one yellow card away from a one match European ban.

Chelsea need to score a goal tonight to avoid penalties, but Olympiacos would progress to the quarter-finals on away goals in the event of any score draw after 90 minutes. Nil-nil at the end of normal time is the only score line that would result in 30 minutes of extra play. If the game still remained goalless a shootout would determine the winner.

Chelsea have been beaten three times (Man Utd away, Arsenal away and Tottenham League Cup Final) in 36 games in all competitions under Avram Grant in a run that has seen 25 wins and 22 clean sheets.

In 65 European games at Stamford Bridge Chelsea have lost three times. Only Lazio (1999/2000 1-2), Besiktas (2003/04 0-2) and Barcelona (2005/06 1-2) have defeated us.

The quarter-final and semi-final draw will be made in Nyon, Switzerland on Friday 14th March at 1pm (UK time). There are no seedings and teams can be drawn against those from the same country.

The Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow will host the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League final on Wednesday 21 May. It is the home of Torpedo Moscow and has a capacity of 84,745 covered seats. It is one of few major European stadiums to use an artificial pitch, having installed the Uefa-approved FieldTurf surface in 2002 to withstand the effects of the freezing winters, although a new natural grass pitch will be laid for the final.

FIRST LEG RESULT
Olympiacos 0 Chelsea 0
Uefa Champions League, Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus.
Olympiacos (4-5-1): Nikopolidis; Zewlakow, Antzas, Julio Cesar, Pantos; Galletti (Leonardo 82), Torosidis, Ledesma, Stoltidis, Djordjevic (c) (Belluschi 75); Kovacevic (Nunez 86).
Manager Panagiotis Lemonis
Booked Belluschi
Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Belletti, Alex, Carvalho, A Cole; Essien, Makelele (c), Ballack (Lampard 86); J Cole (Kalou 74), Drogba, Malouda (Anelka 74).
Manager Avram Grant
Booked Alex, Belletti, Makelele, A Cole
Referee Konrad Plautz (Austria)
Crowd 31,302 notas_de_prensa_archivo