Chelsea given the opportunity to face its Champions League demons

The Champions League draw provided Chelsea with a golden opportunity, but the Blues still need to put in the work it takes to succeed.

Chelsea and the Champions League; when those two staples of European football are muttered within the same sentence, it’s easy to name the one thing Blues fans remember. Any true Chelsea supporter will be quick to describe THAT night in Munich as the greatest event in the club’s rich history. Rightfully so, but that also shields fans from reminiscing on the painful history of the last few seasons in the competition.

Since that famed night in Bayern’s backyard, the Blues have struggled in Europe’s premier competition—and that’s putting it lightly. Despite winning two Europa League titles in that span, the widely regarded Pride of London has been bounced from the UCL five times (in six tries) before reaching the quarterfinals. While this year’s competition is arguably more formidable than that in year’s past, Chelsea’s group offers it a chance at a favorable run.

The last two tries the Blues have had at advancing in the Champions League knockout stages have fallen short, largely due to the fact they failed to put themselves in a position to succeed. Finishing second in its group, the club squared off against the eventual champion, Bayern Munich, and a star-studded Barcelona side. By simply performing better in the group, Chelsea could’ve avoided these ties—or at least delayed them until later rounds. That wasn’t the case.

Luckily, the Blues have a wonderful opportunity to shed the ghosts of the past in this year’s competition. The Champions League draw saw Frank Lampard’s side avoid many of the powerhouse clubs in Europe, instead getting drawn into a group with Sevilla, Krasnodar and Rennes. Group E looks like one of the weaker collections in the competition, but what does this mean for Chelsea going forward?

To put it simply, there is no excuse for the Blues to finish second in Group E. Sevilla is a good football team, but the reigning Europa League champions have nothing on Chelsea, who spent north of £200 million to strengthen a team that qualified for last year’s UCL knockout stages already. Further, both Krasnodar and Rennes are debuting in the tournament and while Cinderella stories are often present, they usually don’t come from the cracks of southern Russia or French selling clubs.

The opposition makes the path to success more clear, but there are still some obstacles standing in the Blues’ way. At the end of the day, finishing first in the group is an opportunity for Chelsea to overcome the nightmares haunting the club and build momentum heading into the knockout stages. The drop-off in competition levels between group winners and runner-ups is slim—if any at all. The Blues could potentially face clubs like Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, Dortmund, PSG and Barcelona in the round of 16, but the slim chance of playing a definitively beatable side should be motivation enough. After struggling in the Champions League in years past, there will hardly be excuses made once the competition kicks off in a matter of weeks.

To say the draw was kind to Chelsea is putting it lightly. The young side has the world in the palm of its hand, but some big hurdles to overcome en route to glory. The Blues have been given the recipe for success, but they need to face the demons of recent times before they can even dream of making history in Istanbul in a matter of months.