Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas remains confident his underperforming side will reach the last 16 of the Champions League despite Wednesday’s disappointing defeat at Bayer Leverkusen.
The Blues appeared on course for the win that would have booked their progression out of Group H after Didier Drogba gave them the advantage in Germany early in the second half.
However, they threw away the lead and an injury-time winner from Manuel Friedrich gave Leverkusen a 2-1 win.
Now Villas-Boas’ side must win or keep a clean sheet against Valencia in their final group game to qualify but, despite the pressure, the Portuguese coach insists they will get the required result and the Champions League betting shows they have every chance of doing so.
“It’s in our hands to qualify. It’s a game at home and we expect to do our job,” he said.
“That’s our responsibility and we don’t want to let the fans down. We will need Stamford Bridge completely behind us.”
The defeat is another blow to Villas-Boas, however, with reports suggesting owner Roman Abramovich is running out of patience with the man he brought in from Porto in the summer – barely four months into the job.
Chelsea have now lost four of their last seven games in all competitions and the defeat in the league last weekend to Liverpool has left them 12 points adrift of leaders Manchester City. Fans of Betfair football will be surprised by how poorly they have done.
Add to that disappointing losses against QPR and Arsenal over the past month and the pressure is building on the manager, who knows failure to make the last 16 of the Champions League or, even worse, not making the top four this season will not be tolerated by the notoriously hard-to-please Russian owner.
The Blues host Wolves on Saturday in what is already being described as a must-win game for the Londoners before another clash against Liverpool in the Carling Cup next Tuesday.
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