€1.17bn market value 

©IMAGO

Chelsea are accustomed to being recognised favourites to win in the Champions League. Yet the pressure for head coach Liam Rosenior to deliver a victory may never be greater when his side take on Pafos FC on Wednesday night at Stamford Bridge. Tasked with winning over a disgruntled fanbase that remains deeply unhappy with the running of the club under the BlueCo consortium, Rosenior won’t need reminding that three points is a minimum requirement. For all of his words of praise for his players and his enthusiasm for football management, the biggest statement the 41-year-old can make is on the pitch.

It’s not only because the fixture represents the biggest gap in squad market value in Chelsea’s Champions League history – €1.13 billion to be exact. Chelsea’s €1.17b-valued squad is littered with star names such as Moisés Caicedo, Enzo Fernández and Cole Palmer, while Pafos’ roster worth €30.8 million contains a blend of European and South American journeymen – and only three members of their squad actually hail from Cyprus.

Interestingly, the second-biggest differential in squad market value came against Qarabağ earlier this season, and Chelsea were held to a 2-2 draw in Baku on that occasion. But with qualification on the line and a tough trip to Napoli for their final league phase match, Rosenior will be hoping to avoid a potential giant killing.

It also marks Rosenior’s first-ever Champions League game and the ex-Strasbourg boss has a golden opportunity to mark his stamp in west London. The three previous managers appointed by the owners to take charge of a Champions League fixture – Graham Potter, Frank Lampard (interim) and Enzo Maresca – all failed to claim victory in their first game at the helm in Europe’s premier club competition. Potter oversaw a 1-1 draw with Red Bull Salzburg in September 2022, Lampard’s Chelsea were overpowered by eventual winners Real Madrid in April 2023 and Maresca’s side got a taste of a Bayern Munich’s dominance in a 3-1 defeat in Munich.

There is no doubt Rosenior has the easiest fixture on paper out of the four bosses, but it’s also fair to say that there are no easy games in the modern era of the Champions League. Pafos have already exceeded expectations in their maiden campaign, stunning Villarreal with a 1-0 victory in Cyprus and earning respectable points in draws with AS Monaco (2-2) and Olympiacos (0-0) respectively. Their only defeats have come against Bayern and Juventus, fixtures they were widely expected to lose anyway. The vast majority of fans would predict Chelsea to have too much quality for them at Stamford Bridge, yet stranger things have happened before.

For one, there will be an unmistakably familiar face amongst the opposition XI. David Luiz, now 38, appeared 29 times in the Champions League for Chelsea – including that fateful night in Munich back in May 2012 when they beat Bayern Munich on penalties. Luiz was one of the players at the heart of their defensive effort that night, and 14 years later, he is hoping to break their resistance.

Surprisingly, Luiz is not the only former blue to appear on the Pafos squad list. Domingos Quina spent four years with their youth team from 2012 to 2016 and never made a senior appearance for the club before joining West Ham United. Then there is Mislav Orsic, the 33-year-old Croatian who scored the only goal of the game to help Dinamo Zagreb pull off a famous 1-0 win over Chelsea in September 2022. That proved to be Thomas Tuchel’s final game before he was unceremoniously sacked by Boehly, and the rest is history.

With the backdrop of former Chelsea players, the gulf in squad market value and the first Champions League test for Rosenior, it represents an opportunity for one of the biggest shocks in recent Champions League history to occur on Wednesday night. The new Chelsea boss has already swatted away one threat, however, thrashing Charlton 5-1 in the FA Cup third round in his first game in charge, before needing some good fortune to overcome Brentford 2-0 last Saturday.

Already three games into his managerial career in west London, Rosenior has a rare opportunity to do what his predecessors couldn’t – and the tactician will be desperate to ensure he is on the right side of history as the Blues look to book their place in the knockout phase.