DI MATTEO: CONFIDENCE AND BELIEF
Posted on: Fri 18 May 2012
Roberto Di Matteo will make his final decisions on team selection this evening after our training session in the Allianz Arena, ahead of what he says will be his greatest achievement in football, should we win in Munich.
The interim first team coach is waiting on the fitness of defensive pair David Luiz and Gary Cahill, who have trained all week with the group, and Florent Malouda, who joined his team-mates for the first time in Germany after limping off against Blackburn Rovers last weekend.
'Cahill and David Luiz trained the whole week so we are very hopeful, and Malouda will join the group today,' Di Matteo told the gathered media beneath the Fussball Arena Munchen, adding that 'we brought two players from the B list just in case, Nathaniel Chalobah and Todd Kane.
'I will wait until the last session tonight to see and reassess all my players. Then tonight I will make my final decisions about the team selection.'
The Italian has maintained a calm exterior throughout our run to the Champions League Final, and he was no different on what Uefa has christened Matchday Minus One.
'Can we win it?,' he was asked. 'Yes,' was his response. 'I don't know what the future will hold but we can win it and we have to have the confidence and belief to do so.
'I think the players deserve it. The players have done tremendously well and the whole club, and the supporters, would deserve it.
'I do believe our players have all the qualities you need to win this competition those qualities have taken us to this event here and I am very positive and very confident. '
Of course at this stage nothing is straightforward, and on their own patch Di Matteo knows Bayern Munich will provide immense opposition, irrespective of their 5-2 defeat to Borussia Dortmund at the weekend.
'They have the best defence in the league, you can't just take one game to summarise Bayern. They've had a very good season and our approach has to be the correct one for ourselves to be able to beat them.
'They are playing in their stadium so they know the environment, pitch, dressing room,' he said. 'Our players are highly motivated and will be positive. We will try to make the best of the game tomorrow and try to win it.
'I think there are suspended players on both teams and if you make it to a final then you have two good teams. Bayern Munich has great players and strengths we are aware of, and are playing at home which could be a slight advantage for them but we have excellent players on our team and I think we have just the same chances as Bayern.'
With John Terry among the four Chelsea suspensions, Frank Lampard is expected to captain the side. Di Matteo shared his thoughts on the midfielder, who had earlier appeared alongside forward Didier Drogba in front of the press.
'Frank has been amazing,' he said. 'He has risen to the occasion when we needed him. In the Nou Camp he was outstanding, he led the group, and he is a natural leader. You might not always look at him like that but when you need him the man is there, he is a proper man.'
Di Matteo will need all 11 of his men to stand up for him on Saturday night. To lift the trophy would be their biggest achievement too.
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