LONDON: It is difficult to envision previous supervisor Jose Mourinho continually calling Chelsea underdogs, however that is the manner by which successor Guus Hiddink has portrayed them before their Champions League Last 16 second leg conflict against Paris St Germain on Wednesday (today).
The French champions head to Stamford Bridge for the third progressive season, having thumped Chelsea out at the same stage a year prior.
They are again top choices as indicated by Hiddink, taking after their 2-1 triumph in the main leg in Paris on Feb. 16.
The wily 69-year-old Dutchman might well be playing mind recreations, yet, he says, "We are not the top choices. We have recaptured certainty and have quality, yet we should be exceptionally extreme underdogs. We should be furious controlledly on Wednesday, the players must be completely thought."
Chelsea's outcomes have enhanced subsequent to Mourinho left in December, losing just once — at PSG — in 18 matches in all rivalries.
A 1-0 win now will be sufficient to see them through on away objectives.
That is the way they beat PSG in the quarter-finals two seasons back and how PSG dispensed with them last season.
With the tie finely adjusted that could well be the result once more.
Chelsea will more likely than not be without harmed captain John Terry yet striker Diego Costa ought to be fit in the wake of missing Saturday's 1-1 draw with Stoke City with a minor tendon damage.
Previous Chelsea guard David Luiz, who won the Champions League with Chelsea in 2012 and scored for PSG at Stamford Bridge last season, told uefa.
com on Monday he will dependably have a fondness for Chelsea subsequent to burning through three seasons there.
Be that as it may, he was resolved to see PSG thump them out.
"My admiration, my adoration for Chelsea, will dependably be the same," the Brazil global said, "however I trust we can turn out as victors there.
"London was a city and a club where I was exceptionally cheerful.
I had some incredible minutes there, yet I am centered around my work, which is to play for PSG.
"PSG land on the back of some poor results in the wake of agony their first Ligue 1 rout in right around a year when they lost 2-1 at Olympique Lyonnais a weekend ago and drew 0-0 at home with Montpellier on Saturday.
Mentor Laurent Blanc will presumably need to supplant key midfielder Marco Verratti with Argentine playmaker Javier Pastore in light of the fact that Verratti has a repeating crotch issue.
France midfielder Blaise Matuidi ought to be fit in the wake of recuperating from a thigh harm, while Lucas is relied upon to begin on the left flank of the assault rather than Edinson Cavani, who scored PSG's triumphant objective in Paris three weeks back.
At the Petrovskiy Stadium, Benfica will handle an alternative rearguard when they go to one of their slightest most loved chasing grounds to protect a 1-0 Champions League lead at Zenit St Petersburg in the second match of the day.
The Primeira Liga victors are missing three focal safeguards in addition to goalkeeper Julio Cesar throughout the previous 16 second leg.
Luisao and Lisandro Lopez are harmed and Jardel is suspended.
That leaves Victor Lindelof, who began the season as a store, as the main perceived focal protector in the squad.
Right back Andre Almeida is likewise banned while Julio Cesar will be supplanted by kindred Brazilian Ederson on account of a thigh damage.
Benfica's record of one win, two draws and four annihilations in seven visits to Russia scarcely betokens well either.
Their just triumph came 20 years prior when they beat Lokomotiv Moscow 3-2 in the now-dead European Cup Winners' Cup.
Mentor Rui Vitoria, be that as it may, is floated by Saturday's 1-0 triumph at Sporting that sent his side to the highest point of the Portuguese group in front of their neighbors.
"It's generally better to work from the base of a win," he said.
Benfica have scored 13 triumphs in 14 coordinates this year with just a group rout against most outstanding opponents Porto intruding on the succession.
Vitoria has no stresses in assault where striker Jonas has scored 28 objectives in 35 diversions in all rivalries and is getting a charge out of the best season of his vocation at 31.zenit years old manager Andre Villas-Boas, who confronted Benfica seven times as mentor of Portuguese adversaries Academica Coimbra and Porto, said the supporters could lift his side to triumph and a first-ever quarter-last place.
"We have the point of interest going into the arrival leg, by this I mean our supporters," said the previous Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur supremo.
"I am certain the stadium will be stuffed and they will make an air which will help the group to another level.
"We are certain we can defeat the shortfall," included the Portuguese. "Achieving the quarter-finals of the Champions League is our fantasy and this could be a critical occasion for Russian football."
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