Galatasaray's clash with Chelsea in the first knockout round of the Champions League will be dominated by Didier Drogba's return to his former club. The Ivorian dominated while at Chelsea becoming a club legend and scoring 157 goals in 341 matches.
Chelsea will feel hard done by the draw as Galatasaray were one of the tougher opponents available. The Turkish champs finished 2nd in their group after a famous 1-0 win against Juventus on the last gameweek thanks to a late Sneijder goal, assisted by Drogba.
The English giants finished 1st in their group, but made tough work of it as they also left it until the last gameweek to secure top spot thanks to a 1-0 win over Steaua at the Bridge.
After the match, Jose Mourinho welcome the thought of Drogba and Galatasaray being drawn against Chelsea and was hoping that the two teams would meet:
"He [Drogba] deserves to come here," said Mourinho when asked whether he would welcome facing a forward he admitted had almost given him "a heart attack" last season. "He deserves a reception here even better [than mine], because he deserves much more than me. He deserves to come here and get the reception I got against Hull City [on the opening weekend], but for Didier double or three times better and bigger than I had. I know what I felt. I think he deserves that. So, yes, Galatasaray is difficult. Very difficult. But I'd like Didier to be back here and feel what I felt."
Back in April, Drogba had praised Mourinho for his success at Chelsea and for his great relationship with players while saying that "The Special One" was the right man for the job:
"I think for the club it is the best solution to bring Jose back. The fans want him back. He loves Chelsea."
"If you want to rebuild a team and to give Chelsea the strength we had a few years ago, he could be the right person."
"He is a winner and is close to the players. He went to Inter and is at Real Madrid, but is still talking about Chelsea, so he loves this club"
Drogba reacted to the draw saying:
"What a draw... I'm the luckiest man in this competition," he wrote on his official Instagram account.
"In both games I'll be playing home! See you in few months."
Chelsea club secretary David Barnard reacted similarly to the draw saying: "It was sort of written that Didier would come back to the Bridge," he told Sky Sports.
"We just hope that when he soaks up that adulation he will be too tired to play the game! We’re looking forward to having Didier back."
The first leg will be played in Istanbul on February 18th, 2014 and the return leg at Stamford Bridge will be March 11th, 2014.
