Nemanja Matic claims Chelsea have nothing to fear from Europe’s biggest clubs as they approach next season’s Champions League campaign.
The Premier League champions returned to London on Wednesday at the culmination of a north American tour which finished with a match against Barcelona in Washington DC.
A penalty shoot-out triumph at the end of a contest which ended 2-2 means very little in the grand scheme of things yet it gave the Serbia midfielder a taste of playing against the Champions League winners, even if Lionel Messi and Neymar were both absent having been granted extra time off following the Copa América.
Chelsea need to improve in Europe following last season’s exit to Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 yet Matic said: “Of course we’re not happy that we didn’t play so well in the Champions League but we hope this season we can go further.
“My dream is to win it and we will see if we are ready to win this season. To be champion you need to have everything: quality, luck and everything. This season I hope we have more luck and with our quality I think that this is enough to be champion.
“I think we have quality like the big teams. We are a big team and we will show that this season, I’m sure. We are ready, like I said. We are ready to compete with everyone. I’m not scared. Our players can compete with all the big stars. That’s why they are Chelsea players. I believe in their quality.
“We shouldn’t have lost the game against PSG. Of course every game you don’t win, after that game you feel like you should do better but this is football. Sometimes a team is a little bit tired and you can feel it on the pitch. From outside you can’t see it. The most important thing is most of the games we win.
“Last season we showed our quality and took two trophies. It’s difficult, especially when you’re in the Premier League, to win both but we are ready for the season.”
Chelsea’s pre-season has been short, consisting of only three games and two weeks of training ahead of Sunday’s Community Shield with Arsenal. Fitness checks will be made on Gary Cahill (suspected broken nose) and Diego Costa (hamstring) before the game at Wembley.
Fiorentina visit Stamford Bridge next week in the final friendly before the season starts on 8 August, when Swansea City are the visitors.
“I think we used these days very well. We have prepared ourselves for the first game of the season against Arsenal,” added Matic. “We had three very difficult games against good teams and today especially, against Barcelona, it was a good opportunity to show how we are prepared. And we’re happy we won on penalties.
“I think we’ll be ready for Arsenal – we know what we have to expect: it’s always a special game when you play at Wembley and we’ll be ready, for sure.
“We’ve trained hard but we needed that as we had one month free. We are ready for the next season and I hope we start well with a trophy and we will try to show our quality in the first game. We are ready to compete.
“Of course against champions everyone has special motivation and wants to win but we are ready for that and we believe in our quality. We will be targeted because everyone is going to play against us 100%.”
Rafa Benítez, meanwhile, has refused to bite back at José Mourinho after the Chelsea manager’s withering attack on his old adversary which was fuelled by Benítez’s wife criticising the Portuguese for leaving “a mess” at clubs which she claimed needed to be cleaned up by her husband.
“I am Real Madrid’s coach, I love football, I understand football and for that reason I only talk about football,” said the Spaniard who has followed Mourinho into spells at Internazionale and Real.