Ivory Coast international Didier Drogba will take in an emotional reunion with Chelsea when Galatasaray host the Blues in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League last-16 encounter.<\/p>\n
Drogba’s final act as a Stamford Bridge player was to convert the winning penalty as Chelsea’s long wait for European success came to an end in thrilling fashion back in 2012.<\/p>\n
With the Ivorian striker having taken the decision to move on as a free agent that summer, his nerveless spot kick against Bayern Munich saw him collect the last of 10 titles in a blue shirt.<\/p>\n
While Chelsea will forever hold a special place in his heart, Drogba is now plotting their continental downfall as he prepares to spearhead Galatasaray’s attack in Istanbul.<\/p>\n
Jose Mourinho will be fully aware of the threat posed by the 35-year-old frontman, having taken him to England, and will be looking for John Terry and co to keep a close eye on their former colleague.<\/p>\n
The Champions League was the one major honour to elude Mourinho during his first spell as Chelsea boss and – having previously lifted the crown with Porto and Inter Milan – he will be hoping to complete the set in 2014.<\/p>\n
The Blues, who reached this stage after topping Group E, certainly have the pedigree to go all the way.<\/p>\n
After claiming European football’s grandest prize two years ago, last season saw them prevail in the Europa League – so they have their sights set on a memorable hat-trick.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Mourinho has dismissed Roberto Mancini’s claim that he was responsible for Inter Milan UEFA Champions League success in 2010.<\/p>\n
The current Chelsea manager replaced Mancini at Inter in 2008 and led the Italian side to two Italian league titles, the Italian cup and the Champions League.<\/p>\n
Speaking ahead of Chelsea’s Champions League last-16 game against Mancini’s Galatasaray, Mourinho said there was no doubt who was responsible for Inter’s success.<\/p>\n
\u00a0“It’s funny, it’s funny. It’s funny because my team in the final had Lucio, Thiago Motta, Diego Milito, Samuel Eto’o, Goran Pandev and Wesley Sneijder.<\/span><\/p>\n “From my 11 players, he didn’t work with six of them.<\/p>\n “So he made a five-a-side team because I played with only five players from his team.”<\/p>\n Mancini had earlier claimed: “Mourinho won the Champions League because he took a very good team.<\/p>\n “He took a team that, like Manchester City, I had built, a team that had a strong mentality.<\/p>\n “When I went to Inter, they played very bad football and we changed this.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ivory Coast international Didier Drogba will take in an emotional reunion with Chelsea when Galatasaray host the Blues in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League last-16 encounter. Drogba’s final act as a Stamford Bridge player was to convert the winning penalty as Chelsea’s long wait for European success came to an end in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,80],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2225"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2232,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225\/revisions\/2232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}