The biggest game on Wednesday night in the UEFA Champions League is the first ever meeting of Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea in what is set to be an exhilarating tie. Former Dortmund star and Bet9ja Ambassador Victor Ikpeba gives us the lowdown on how he sees this game going and the overall situation at Stamford Bridge.
VI: One of my former clubs, the great Borussia Dortmund have a huge challenge ahead of them when they face Chelsea, a club going through one of the most objectively interesting periods to watch possibly in football history!
This is a very good time to play Chelsea who have only won once in 2023 but will feel hard done by after Tomas Soucek clearly saved a goal bound Conor Gallagher shot in the West Ham game at the weekend. Joao Felix scored at the weekend but it seems like they have no true striker despite spending hundreds of millions in the transfer window.
I’ve never felt that Kai Havertz is a striker and I don’t know what the problem is with Aubameyang, who appears to have rejected the chance to move to the MLS, to fight for his place at the Blues but he has not been playing as the top striker we know he can be.
Poor Potter
I don’t think that it’s unfair to say that Graham Potter has not been able to get the best from these players, both the ones he inherited from Thomas Tuchel and the players they brought in through the January window but I have felt a lot of sympathy for Potter. Chelsea have gone through so much in the last twelve months as a club and he arrived to coach a team that appeared to be in chaos after a disastrous beginning to the season.
When I really think about it, I don’t understand why they sacked Tuchel, and you could argue that this is looking at it in retrospect, but given the results that Chelsea have had since the former Dortmund boss left, should have given him more time with this team and backed him more in the transfer window? I would argue that they should have but I think there were serious issues between Tuchel and the club’s owners.
The Chelsea job is a massive job and I wonder if Graham Potter has the experience to get the best from these extremely talented players that they have outspent almost the rest of Europe to assemble? As Chelsea know from past experience, buying a lot of players doesn’t guarantee success in football, you have to get the right players at the right time and be under the right manager.
Chelsea Worries
I’m worried for this Chelsea side and I can’t really see them finishing in the top four to qualify for next season’s UEFA Champions League. I worry that Potter will not have the experience to manage such a large squad and it’s very difficult to keep lots of top players happy at the same time, all of whom are on big wages with big contracts and will want to play, how do you fit them all in when you’re in your first big job in English football?
Borussia Dortmund will really fancy their chances of progressing in this tie given the problems Chelsea currently face and Edin Terzic’s men have won six games out of six since domestic football returned in Germany following the World Cup.
In the group stages, they showed how good they can be, they were absolutely electric in their 4-1 win away at Sevilla and although they didn’t beat Man City home or away, they gave such a great account of themselves against one of the best teams in the world. It was very difficult for City to break down this Dortmund defence in both games and they played very good, fast football on the counter being led by Jude Bellingham, who has impressed me more and more every time I watch him.
Its a big game for both and I would expect it to be tight overall but can see my former club Dortmund winning the first leg but Chelsea won’t make it easy in the return leg at Stamford Bridge!
