The draw for the Knock-Out Stages of the Champions League took place this morning as Andre Villas-Boas and his squad discovered their opponents.
The Blues were pulled out to face Napoli which will almost certainly prove to be a difficult tie.
The rest of the draw was as follows:
CSKA Moscow v Real Madrid
FC Basel v Bayern Munich
Lyon v Apoel Nicosia
Bayer Leverkusen v Barcelona
Marseille v Inter Milan
Zenit St Petersburg v Benfica
AC Milan v Arsenal
Chelsea, as seeded Group winners, will be away in the first leg on 21st February. The return home match will be on 14th March.
So what do we know of our opponents?
Well luckily for AVB and the boys, we should be well prepared for the Italian side.
They went through their Group at the expense of Man City and took 4 points from Mancini’s side over the 2 matches.
Napoli drew 1-1 at the Etihad Stadium before winning 2-1 against the English team at the Stadio San Paulo.
They are currently 4th in Serie A having performed quite inconsistently this season.
Their main threat comes from up front with the devastating forward line of Edinson Cavani, Marek Hamsik and Ezequiel Lavezzi.
Can we be confident?
There’s no doubt that Napoli would have been one of the teams to avoid before the draw but we can take confidence in the fact that we are at home in the return tie.
If we can earn a score-draw away in Naples, or even a narrow defeat, then we should have enough in the team to seal progress at Stamford Bridge.
Come on Chels!
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