Chelsea have a mountain to climb if they are claw back the 2-0 deficit when they travel to Swansea for the second leg of their Capital One Cup semifinal.
The Blues will be confident after a brilliant first half performance against Arsenal on Sunday gave them a 2-1 win; Rafa Benitez will ask his team to play along the same lines, and not the nervous side that came out in the second half against the Gunners.
The Blues have been a little hit-and-miss this season, with the situation surrounding Benitez and the fans not helping matters one bit. If ever there was a chance for the Spanish manager to win back some goodwill of the supporters, it would be to pull off what seems like an improbable victory against the Welsh side.
Goals from Michu and Danny Graham, thanks to two calamitous errors from the normally reliable Branislav Ivanovic, gave Michael Laudrup's side a brilliant 2-0 advantage going into their home leg.
The Liberty Stadium is as difficult a place to come and get a result as any, and the fact the Chelsea will need to win by two goals or more to advance, makes it a daunting prospect indeed.
"For me, it's easier than for Michael Laudrup, because we have to score and we have to win the game," Benitez said. "For them, it depends, they may try to play on the counter-attack, or play how they usually do, but I think they will wait for us and play deep.
"We have the confidence we can do it, we are playing against a good team, but if you remember the first game we had a lot of chances. We made two mistakes and they scored, so we have to manage the situation, but our away form has been good.
"We know they will try to score a goal and put more pressure on us, but we have to go there and try to win. Obviously 1-0 isn't enough, so we will have to do a bit better, but we can do it because we have enough quality in the squad."
Benitez is likely to go with the same team that he put out at Arsenal, although David Luiz has travelled to Swansea, and will be assessed just before the game. Nigeria pair John Obi Mikel and Victor Moses remain missing due to the Africa Cup of Nations.
John Terry is slowly but surely inching back to full fitness, but Benitez said he is not likely to take risks with the Chelsea skipper.
"He's been training and doing well, but he needs match fitness," the manager said. "Yesterday we had a hard session and he did well. Today he was training again, we adjusted the team and some tactics, he was involved with the squad and is an option.
"He knows he will need time. We have a plan with him and we are following that plan."
Laudrup will be sweating on the fitness of influential defender Chico Flores, who is a major doubt, while Kemy Agustien is ruled out.
The winner of the tie will face Bradford City in the finals, and although the League Two side have done exceedingly well to get to the final at Wembley, both Chelsea and Swansea will definitely fancy adding a trophy to their cabinet if they pass the semifinal test.
Expected lineups: Swansea: Tremmel; Rangel, Monk, Williams, Davies; Britton, Ki; Hernandez, De Guzman, Routledge; Michu.
Chelsea: Cech; Azpilicueta, Cahill, Ivanovic, Cole; Ramires, Lampard; Hazard, Mata, Oscar; Ba.
Prediction: 2-1 to Chelsea
