UEFA Champions League Preview: Steaua Bucharest v Chelsea

Steaua Bucharest and Chelsea will hope to get their first points on the board when they meet in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday.

Both teams suffered defeat in their first group games of the 2013-14 edition of the tournament, and will be looking to bounce back immediately by earning a win at Stadionul Steaua.

The hosts’ found themselves on the wrong end of a 3-0 drubbing from Schalke on matchday one, with Atsuto Uchida, Kevin-Prince Boateng and Julian Draxler notching for the German club.

Chelsea, meanwhile, slumped to a 2-1 loss to Basel at Stamford Bridge, as goals from Mohamed Salah and Marco Streller cancelled out Oscar’s efforts to hand the Swiss outfit three points.

Jose Mourinho may shuffle his pack for the trip to Romania, and has just one major injury concern ahead of the game after Marco van Ginkel was ruled out long-term with a cruciate knee ligament injury.

Steaua remain without the services of Stefan Nikolic (knee) and Alexandru Chipciu, but boast an otherwise fully fit squad.

These teams met at the second knockout round of last season’s Europa League, which Chelsea went on to win courtesy of victory over Benfica in the final.

The London club did not have things all their own way on the road to lifting the trophy, however, and required a 3-1 win at home after losing the first leg in Romania 1-0.

But the scorers of both of Steaua’s goals in that tie no longer play for the club, with Raul Rusescu having joined Sevilla and Vlad Chiriches electing to leave for Tottenham.

Though Chiriches did not feature in the game, Chelsea’s last outing in fact came against Tottenham, with Mourinho’s men picking up a hard-earned point at White Hart Lane with a 1-1 draw.

That result sees them up in fourth place in the English top flight, four points short of early leaders Arsenal.

Steaua have enjoyed a significantly better start to their domestic season, winning six games and drawing one to take an early lead in the Romanian league.