Benfica v Chelsea: Didier Drogba video nasty will come back to haunt him, says Jorge Jesus
There’s a video, first aired on Chelsea TV, apparently showing Didier Drogba shaking with fake fear when he is told that Chelsea had drawn Benfica in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Drogba’s representatives — and, on Monday night, his team-mate David Luiz — were at pains to distance his reaction from any accusation of lacking respect for this evening’s opponents but, suffice to say, Benfica feel similarly pleased to be facing Chelsea.
“Who knows what he was thinking? He might just have been joking, we don’t know,” said Benfica coach Jorge Jesus. “But Portuguese clubs have eliminated both Manchester United and Manchester City, the top two teams in the Premier League, so that should act as an indication of the strengths of Portuguese football. Any response to Didier Drogba we’ll give out on the field tomorrow.”
Indeed, at Benfica they say that if they could not draw Apoel Nicosia or Marseille at this stage of the Champions League then Chelsea will do.
Certainly, and with a sell-out crowd of 65,000 expected at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday evening, there is no fear of the Premier League club as there may have been not so long ago.
Having topped a group that included United — who they drew with home and away — the Portuguese feel equipped to deal with what Chelsea can throw at them, especially in the second leg and despite the astonishing 4-1 reversal suffered at Stamford Bridge by Napoli in the previous round. At home, Benfica are unbeaten in 10 European ties.