Zenden: Chelsea could be frozen out after Sparta’s winter break

 
Simon Johnson13 February 2013

Boudewijn Zenden fears Sparta Prague’s winter break has handed the Czech side a huge advantage over Chelsea for their Europa League tie tomorrow.

Chelsea assistant coach Zenden is worried his team could suffer another upset in Europe, having already crashed out of the Champions League group stages for the first time in their history this season.

Chelsea play the first leg of their last-32 tie in Prague with Sparta fully rested after not playing a game since December 6 because of the winter break.

In contrast, the Blues have played 18 matches since then and fatigue has been a factor in their inconsistent form.

Chelsea are still strong favourites to progress over two legs but Zenden has warned his players not to take victory for granted.

He said: “They’ve been in a winter break, so they had a month to prepare for this game. They will be up for it and be ready physically.

“The good thing is it’s a two-legged game. It is always important to score away in Europe. I expect them to be quite good because they have had very good results, which is how they have come to this stage in the competition.”

Sparta are unbeaten in their last 11 home European matches and qualified at the expense of Athletic Bilbao, who beat Manchester United on the way to reaching the final of the tournament last year.

Chelsea’s win against Wigan on Saturday was just their fourth in 11 games and Zenden believes it is vital the team build on that success against Sparta.

He added on Chelsea TV: “It is always important to keep the momentum going. I also have the feeling that we’re doing so many things right.

“We want to get the results and play good football, which is not always easy because, as we’ve seen in the past few months, there are a lot of teams who try to take that away from us, the attractive side of the game, and hit us on the counter.

“It is very important for us to keep working on our positioning during any moment in the game.”

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