Almost 14 years to the date, Chelsea held a 2-0 aggregate lead heading into the second leg at Stamford Bridge against FC Copenhagen. It was looking to be a certain win and an ease through to another European quarter-final. Copenhagen arrived and refused to back down. While entering as underdogs, they mustered up a dogged performance to earn a memorable 0-0 draw in London that evening.
Chelsea were then managed by the legendary Carlo Ancelotti, and fielded a side that included club legends Petr Cech, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba. A bleak reminder of how far the mighty have fallen. The Blues have a new Italian at the helm and he will be aiming to restore a sense of pride within the club once again, beginning with a win on Thursday in Denmark.
The Europa Conference League should be pretty straight forward for a team of Chelsea’s calibre. It’s been an easy rise thus far with the Blues easing through the group by being the only team to win every game and score 26 goals in 6 games. With the teams remaining, you would have to admit that Chelsea should realistically ease through to the final. However, a tough Copenhagen side stand in their way.
F.C Copenhagen have had a strong start to their season. They are three points clear at the top of the Danish Superliga and have only lost twice in their last 15 games. Albeit the Danish league is of a lower standard, compared to the Premier League, they will still enter into this tie on the back of some impressive form.
In their Europa Conference play-off round, they faced F.C Heidenheim of Germany. After suffering a 2-1 loss at home in the first leg, the Danes responded impressively by beating the Bundesliga side 3-1 away to progress to the last 16. This victory has set up a fixture with tournament favourites Chelsea, a true David vs. Goliath story. But what should the Blues expect from their Danish counterparts?
F.C Copenhagen line up in a similar way to Chelsea. They rely on the two central midfielders to provide a cover for their back four while also allowing it to balance out their attacking threat. They also centre their attack around a lone front man, quite similar to how Chelsea use the likes of a Nicolas Jackson or Christopher Nkunku.
Their ability to use former Southampton player, Mohamed Elyounoussi in a versatile role has helped their attacking returns as the Norwegian has nine goals scored for the club this season. Their front four tends to change and rotate quite often which makes it difficult for Chelsea to predict how they will structure their attack for this game.
While their formation tends to remain the same, they often rotate their wingers and attacking midefielder between Robert, Magnus Mattsson, Jordan Larsson, Mohamed Elyounoussi. The fact that they change their striker regularly also shows a lack of cohesion in the team and it is something Chelsea should aim to exploit. Amin Chiaka and Viktor Claesson interchange depending on the game and have nine goals between them this season.
Interestingly, fullback Kevin Diks is their top scorer this season with ten goals in all competitions. He has agreed to move to Bundesliga side Borussia Monchengladbach in the summer and has been their key man this season. While his goals have all come from the penalty spot, he also has four assists to his name and he is a player that Copenhagen will look to utilise in either a right or left fullback role.
The Danes will be well aware that they will be huge underdogs going into this game and the they will have to draw up a plan to remain in the tie for as long as possible. How will Copenhagen aim to set up and frustrate Chelsea? After the side’s home defeat to Heidenheim in the play-off round first leg, head coach Jacob Neestrup stated that his side need to be more compact when playing a more superior side.
""In the first match, we were best in the first half, and although the first 12-15 minutes of the second half were not perfect, they were good. Our mistake was that when Heidenheim equalised, we opened up the game too much, so it became a 50-50 game. And when that happens, a Bundesliga team will be better than FC Copenhagen, because they are better at using the space, where the Danish Superliga is more compact with tight marking"."Copenhagen Manager Jacob Neestrup
It hints that F.C Copenhagen will aim to be tight and compact in defence and restrict any space for the Chelsea attack to find gaps and areas to move into. While this has usually been the case for any of the sides that Chelsea have played in the competition this year, it will be about patience and working on drawing the Danish side out of position to exploit their weaknesses.
As this weekend is a FA Cup weekend, Chelsea travel to Copenhagen next Thursday after a weekend off and will be fresh heading to Denmark. After an impressive 4-0 win over Southampton, the Blues will be full of confidence heading into this last 16 tie.
However, they will need to be prepared for a battle. As seen when Man City travelled their last season for the Champions League last 16 game, Copenhagen were almost heading into halftime level until a Bernardo Silva goal before the break ended their hopes. While Man City demolished the Danes on the statistic board, it was no easy task and Chelsea should take caution.