José Mourinho says Chelsea players’ confidence is returning ahead of the trip to Maccabi.
To qualify, Chelsea will be hoping Dynamo Kyiv drop points at Group G leaders Porto while they beat Maccabi.
Chelsea have won only three of last 11 games in all competitions but Maccabi have not been in a good form in Champions League also as they are yet to earn their first point.
Chelsea manager, José Mourinho, told the media, “We are in a good position even though we haven’t qualified yet. If we play like we have been recently we have a good chance. I think the players are getting their confidence back.
“Tomorrow is simple – if we lose, we are in trouble and we rely on other results; if we draw, we can qualify on the final matchday; if we win, we have a great chance of qualifying first.
“I said this season that one team would not qualify for the Champions League, but I hoped it wouldn’t be us. We are just taking it game by game. There are plenty of matches still to come and the Premier League is still a good avenue for us to qualify.”
The coach of Maccabi, Slaviša Jokanović, has also expressed cautious optimism about his team’s chances.
“I don’t expect Chelsea to be complacent, this will be a very important match for them. We have continued to improve throughout but at this moment we are still not at the level to win games and we cannot be satisfied yet. I expect we will be more competitive in this match, however, and the aim is to win. We need to be more solid in defence and more dangerous in attack.
“It is important we don’t think about Chelsea’s problems. We have a good chance to show who we are. We will try to take every chance they give us and the game starts at 0-0. Nobody bet on us to qualify for the group stage and nobody will bet on us tomorrow, so it is another moment to fight very hard,” he said.
