In spite of their dream of more lucrative adventures in the Champions League come next season, on Thursday Chelsea and Tottenham will have their eyes focused on a place in Europa League semifinals.
Both must put thoughts of the Champions League aside at least for 90 minutes as they prepare to meet Steaua Bucharest and Inter Milan respectively.
Spurs, twice winners of Europa League, would have been competing in the Champions League this season, had Chelsea’s triumph in the final over Bayern Munich not torpedoed those ambitions.
However, the Blues themselves suffered the heartache of being dumped into the Europa melting pot when they became the first Champions League winners to exit at the group stage.
Much water has flowed under Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge since they saw off Bayern, with Champions League-winning coach Roberto Di Matteo unceremoniously sacked and Rafa Benitez installed as an interim measure – to the dismay of many of the club’s supporters.
Yet Benitez, while recognising that Champions League qualification is the overriding goal, would happily lift a trophy, which would enable Chelsea to complete the set of European Cup, the now defunct Cup Winners’ Cup and also UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League.
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