Chelsea is focused and determined heading into Thursday's Europa League match in the third round at Steaua Bucharest and the club will be looking for solid play from the team ahead of Sunday's FA Cup quarter-final at Manchester United.
The club will need to focused on Thursday's match and not the anticipated weekend game and head Rafael Benitez will be making sure his team is ready.
We will try to progress in every competition and the next game is the most important game,'' Benitez said to ESPN.com. "Now we are here, to play in the Europa League, we will try to win. On Sunday we'll be at Old Trafford and afterwards we'll concentrate on West Ham, or whatever. We know that all the competitions are important and if we can finish in the top four, everybody will be happy.''
Benitez has been in the news lately about his contract, as his interim stint with the team ends in May and many are expecting him to leave. The club is coming off of a solid 1-0 against West Bromwich in the Premier League and they also won last month in the FA Cup against Middlesbrough.
Chelsea will have the benefit of hosting next time the two teams play, but on Thursday they will need to stick together to get the important victory. The game will be at National Arena in Romania's capital and the team will have to focus in on the game and not the crowd.
Chelsea was eliminated from the Champions League and the only chances the club has to win trophies this season are in the Europa League and FA Cup. The team has played a number of matches, but Benitiez feels his team is ready.
"We know we have played a lot of games and still we want to play a lot of them until the end of the season,'' he said. That is the way of a top side when you play in so many competitions - you have to manage your squad. We have a good group of players and we can choose one or another one. If we do it properly, I don't think fatigue will be a problem.''
Steaua is coming off of a penalty shootout victory over Ajax and are looking forward to facing the 2012 Champions League winners.
"Chelsea are a better team [than Ajax] - they are the UEFA Champions League holders so they are obviously the stronger team," said Goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu to UEFA.com.
Led by Laurentiu Reghecampf, the team is eight points ahead in the Romanian league and the team is playing well, not losing since the first leg with Ajax on the road.
"Chelsea have more skilful individuals but we are a very solid group,'' the 27-year-old Tatarusanu said. "Chelsea are the favourites but we all know that football is unpredictable and anything is possible.''
Steaua Bucharest owner Gigi Becali started taunting the Blues before the match, saying that the team is too slow and they do not have the desire or will to win their current competition. The talk is likely to spark Chelsea, as they are preparing for a match over the weekend after the last-16 of the Europa League match.
"I think we can win this and I'm sure we will, you will see!" Becali was quoted as saying in the Sun. "Chelsea are a very good team but they are slow and we also want to win more. Alexandru Chipciu is going to be dynamite in midfield against Frank Lampard. You'll see, he will fly past him!
Prediction: Chelsea 2, Steaua Bucharest 1. The two teams have never faced each other and Chelsea will have the advantage as they have had three wins over their recent away matches in the Europa and Champions League. Chlesea has a number of foreign players, but they will have an advantage with Oscar and Eden Hazard leading the way.
