Jose Mourinho fears the lingering impact of Diego Costa’s three-match ban will continue to haunt Chelsea in the Champions League.
Costa returns against Paris St Germain in the Parc de Princes on Tuesday night but, rather than accepting he will be fresh and ready for action, Mourinho predicts his 17-goal top-scorer will be off the pace after three weeks out.
'I will start him,' said Mourinho. 'But I don’t think it’s good for a player to be three weeks, three matches without starting a game. I don’t think he will be in the best condition.
'Also, Loic Remy and Didier Drogba have played in the last three matches and it is important for them to have minutes, and I am confident I have them both ready for the game too.'
Real Madrid and Bayern Munich are many people's favourites heading into the last 16, but Mourinho disagrees, suggesting that the competition is more than capable of throwing up the unexpected.
He said: 'I don't agree at all (that they're favourites), because the Champions League always has space for surprises.
'You go through the last decade and see teams winning the competition who you expect to win, but you also have teams you don't expect to win. You can balance it almost 50-50.
'You have three or four teams people would not be waiting for. I really don't know the candidates when it goes to the knockout stage. At the moment there are 16 candidates for me.'
Chelsea beat PSG in the quarter-finals of last season's competition, losing the first leg 3-1 in Paris before going on to secure qualification on away goals at Stamford Bridge thanks to a last-minute goal from Demba Ba. And Mourinho is more than aware of just how fine the margins were last time.
'We beat them but we lost in Paris and it was decided in the last minute,' he said. 'The details make the difference. I’m not saying we won because we were better than Paris. We won because we scored away and did not concede at home.
'Paris is a great team and basically the same as last season with David Luiz, same coach, same dynamic, same profile, with conditions to be better because when you have stability you can improve.
'Chelsea have different players. We change the profile of our game. I don’t want to say we’re better but Parc de Princes will see a different Chelsea to last season.'
Source:Dailymail.
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