NK Maribor vs Chelsea FC preview - Mourinho teases stellar selection

Posted Wednesday, November 05, 2014 by PA

Jose Mourinho suggested he would field a full-strength team away to Maribor after Diego Costa made the trip to Slovenia.

Mourinho used his press conference to take a pot-shot at Liverpool's much-changed team selection to face Real Madrid - without waiting for a result in the match - before suggesting there will be no such rotation in the Chelsea ranks, even for a match they are heavily favoured to win.

"I like this concept of going with a big club, full of big players to a country, a stadium, a city where normally they don't come," said Mourinho, whose side face Liverpool in the league at the weekend.

"To come here, to play here, I think we have responsibility to play for us and also to play for the people.

"I know they want to win - they don't want us to win - but to play for the people is to play well, and to show what we can do, to show the quality players we have, to show the quality team we have."

Chelsea can secure their place in the knock-out stages providing they win and Sporting Lisbon fail to beat Schalke in the other Group G fixture.

But despite a 6-0 win in the reverse fixture at Stamford Bridge, the Portuguese is taking nothing for granted.

He added: "The 6-0 win is a fake situation. Normally Chelsea to score goals need a lot (of chances).

"Against Maribor everything went in our direction. The first opportunity we had was a goal, the second one a goal, and so on.

"(But) I know they are a good team. I analysed them against Sporting and Schalke.

"I need to convince the players that the game at Stamford Bridge was one of these matches where everything goes in our direction."

Costa was among the 22 players to make the trip, having returned from his persistent hamstring problems to play in last Saturday's defeat of QPR.

Striker Loic Remy (groin) and midfielder John Obi Mikel (knee) are the only injury absentees, while third-choice goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer is ineligible for the Champions League.

Maribor defender Arghus insisted there was nothing to fear from the match despite the result last time.

"Chelsea are a big club, probably the biggest to ever come to our stadium," Arghus said on uefa.com.

"But I trust my colleagues, we believe in ourselves and we know that we can play against any team in the world.

"Of course Chelsea are big favourites, but they will have to beat our defence first.

"Yes, they are quick with a lot of creativity in attack. Everybody knows Chelsea - we watch them every week - so we know that they don't have any weaknesses.

"But at the same time we are not afraid of anyone."