Chelsea manager focused on Shakhtar Donetsk
Roberto Di Matteo has insisted he will not pick Tuesday’s team to play Shakhtar Donetsk with the weekend game against Manchester United in mind.
Di Matteo is expected to recall John Terry
for the UEFA Champions League Group E clash in Ukraine one year on from the incident that led to his four-match domestic ban for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand.
But the rest of the Blues team is a mystery and while Di Matteo could be tempted to rotate the squad ahead of Sunday’s visit of United, he is determined to focus only on Shakhtar for now.
“I won’t think about Manchester United, only this game,” said the Italian. “We’ve got to focus on it, try to win the game and that’s a big, big boost for our campaign in the Champions League.
“There are always knocks and bruises and maybe some fatigue as well considering the majority of our team have been away on international duty.
“Some of them have played two games for their country. All these things are things to think about.”
Meanwhile, Shakhtar boss Mircea Lucescu has warned Chelsea his in-form side are a completely different prospect to the Tottenham team that the European champions beat on Saturday.
“We are also different from Tottenham these days,” said Lucescu.
“I believe that our team’s level is higher. This is true of both each player’s individual skill and the game organisation. I think that we surpass Tottenham in terms of those qualities.”
