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| THESE ARE THE GAMES YOU LIVE FOR AS A PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLER
Tonight is a huge occasion, the first leg of a brilliant quarter-final tie and one that we are all really motivated for.
These nights in the knockout stages of the Champions League are always incredible, it's such a great feeling to walk out there knowing how much it means to everyone watching. I've said it before, but these are the games you live for as a professional footballer.
The fact that this is an all- English tie should make for a great atmosphere at the Bridge tonight and I know there will be a lot of Chelsea supporters up at Old Trafford for the return leg next week.
We were disappointed with the draw at Stoke on Saturday because we had been in good form going into the international break and we wanted to come back from it with another win.
Man United know we will never give up on the league, though, and we will keep going until the end. We've got a game in hand, we still have to play them away and, with two wins in those fixtures, things will look a lot closer.
Now, it's important we bounce back from the weekend's game as quickly as possible, which means putting in a good performance tonight and getting ourselves into a strong position for the second leg.
I want to mention some of our younger players here tonight as well because we have a strong group of players in the Academy at the moment. In the recent international games, Chelsea boys captained three of the younger age groups for England - Ryan Bertrand skippered the Under-21s and Nathaniel Chalobah led out the Under-17s. Both of them have trained with us a lot over the past year. They've also been around the matchday squad on occasions, too, so we know about their talent and it's good to see them progressing.
One of our younger lads, Jordan Houghton, captained the Under-16s as well, which shows the quality coming through the ranks.
I went and watched the reserves play on Monday afternoon at Cobham and they won their fourth game in a row, 2-0 against Blackburn, to put themselves in a good position in the league.
Also, the youth team are playing the first leg of their FA Youth Cup semi-final against Man United this Sunday. The atmosphere for the previous rounds at Stamford Bridge has been brilliant and I know how much it means to the lads when they get a good turnout to watch them. So get down here in numbers because the standard is excellent.
It's great to be at the business end of the season now, but there is a lot of football still to play in the next two months. Let's go out there and put ourselves in the driving seat with a win here tonight.
Come on the Chels!
ChelseaFC |
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