Jose Mourinho is rarely lacking in confidence and the Chelsea boss is firm in his belief that his side can overturn a two-goal deficit in Tuesday night’s Uefa Champions League quarter-final second leg with Paris Saint-Germain.
If Chelsea are to reach a seventh semi-final in 11 years, Mourinho's men must respond from the 3-1 first-leg loss at Parc des Princes, when his side were "dangerous to ourselves".
“I think we are going to win, really,” Mourinho said. “In the end of the two legs, I think we are going to score more goals than them.
“In this moment it’s 3-1, I think in the end it can be 4-3 or 5-4. If I don’t think that way I don’t go. And I go and I’m happy to go.
“I believe and my players believe. That’s the most important thing.”
Mourinho could be prepared to gamble on the fitness of Samuel Eto’o, the striker who has missed the last three games with a hamstring injury.
Eto’o has netted all 11 of his goals this season at Stamford Bridge and is trusted by Mourinho to rise to the occasion, perhaps in contrast to Fernando Torres, who was omitted from a strikerless starting XI in Paris last Wednesday.
“Fit, fit, I don’t think he is. But play, maybe,” the Chelsea boss said of Eto’o, a Champions League winner with Barcelona and Mourinho’s Inter Milan.
PSG have lost just once by two clear goals in their last 110 fixtures, while only two sides in Champions League history have overturned two-goal deficits, with Chelsea involved in both contests.
In 2000, Barcelona advanced at Chelsea’s expense, but in 2012 Chelsea overcame Napoli after extra-time in the last 16, en route to winning the European Cup.
Chelsea, who beat Stoke on Saturday after three losses in the previous five games, must replicate the Napoli result against PSG.
Reminders of the successful 2012 campaign are everywhere.
PSG forwards Edinson Cavani and Ezequiel Lavezzi were in the Napoli side beaten by the Blues, while Tuesday’s referee Pedro Proenca was also the man in the middle against Bayern in the Munich final.
There are numerous comparisons between PSG and Chelsea after the lavish spending of foreign owners.
PSG are two years into a project which began at Chelsea when Roman Abramovich took ownership in June 2004.
The Ligue 1 club, who are without talismanic forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic (thigh), are determined to savour success in the competition sooner rather than later.
PSG manager Laurent Blanc said: “There is real ambition within this club to win the Champions League as quickly as possible.
“This can often take time. We’ve seen examples of that in England, with Chelsea, who despite investing an enormous amount of money, still took a long time to win the trophy.”
However, the visitors will not be intimidated at Stamford Bridge.
Blanc added: “We’ve not come here to suffer, we’ve not come here to have Chelsea just dictate the game to us and to dominate us.
“We know that the best approach to take is to have the ball and to create chances.
“It would be wonderful to be able to qualify by putting this philosophy into action.”
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