Chelsea return to Istanbul tonight. Not to 'hell', but the 'other place.' The infamous old version of the Ali Sami Yen, with its intimidating intimacy and city location, has made way for the slick, expansive acreage of the Turk Telecom Arena. 'Welcome to half-and-half scarf hell!', anyone? Nonetheless the locals will attempt to stoke the furnaces and avoid a repeat of the Blues' 5-0 triumph in Istanbul in 1999.

Champions League duty returns for Fernando Torres as the Spanish striker looks for add new goals to his European tally of the season. Torres scored two goals in three matches in spite of a knee injury recovering process reduced his playing-time on the group stage of the competition. Only one game was played full 90 minutes by the Spaniard –at home to Schalke 04- scoring two of the three goals celebrated by Stamford Bridge faithful (3-0). The other two games played were the ten first minutes in Bucharest -before the injury- and 49 as a sub replacing injured Eto’o away to Basel.

Torres has not face Galatasaray before on his career but it would be not his first Turkish rival. In early stages of the 2010/11 Europa League -still on Liverpool’s red shirt- Torres played the second half of Liverpool-Trabzonspor tie at Anfield (1-0).

An aspect of the trip is familiar for Blues with the presence on the pitch of the Londoners' Champions League-winning legend, Didier Drogba. The Ivorian, now 35, is still banging in goals - 10 in 27 Süper Lig and Champions League appearances.

What is more difficult to gauge is the strength of Turkey's top flight. Current league leaders Fenerbahçe played a Champions League qualification tie with Arsenal in August and lost 0-3 at home, 0-2 in London.

It is also notable that Galatasaray's seven points from the group stage would not have been enough to qualify in six of the seven others; five third-placed teams had a better tally.

They lost their first Group B game 6-1 at home to Real Madrid, Roberto Mancini replacing Fatih Terim as coach and masterminding a draw at Juventus in his first game. Wesley Sneijder's late goal defeated the Old Lady in the last game to secure the runners-up slot.

Chelsea's away form in the group stage was mostly very impressive, winning 4-0 in Bucharest and beating Schalke 3-0 in Gelsenkirchen before a disappointing 0-1 loss in Switzerland to Basel (Mohamed Salah the scorer there).

Mancini's men will be in buoyant mood after bettering deadly rivals Beşiktaş this weekend, though an act of sportsmanship commanded as much attention as the 1-0 scoreline. Their defender Semih Kaya convinced the referee he had conceded a corner after officials had awarded a goal kick in his favour.
The win put the defending Süper Lig champions second and further closed the gap at the top to four points. Leaders Fenerbahçe, who drew at Elazigspor on Monday night, had opened a 10-point gap before the winter break but have lost two away games since the resumption.

Chelsea's third successive home victory over Everton on Saturday in the Premier League (our 66th against the Toffees) was the 150th victory of Jose Mourinho's two spells at Stamford Bridge. Our win and Norwich's success against Tottenham has produced a 10-point gap between top and fifth place with less than a third of the campaign to go.

Mourinho is aiming to become the first manager to win the Champions League with three different teams, having triumphed with Porto in 2004 and Internazionale in 2010. The Portuguese, of course, had replaced Mancini at Inter in 2008.

Mancini had brought three Scudetti to Milan but 'old big ears' eluded him - he did not take them so far as the semi-finals and this is only the second time he has progressed from the group stages in six attempts.

Porto beat Lazio 4-1 on aggregate in the 2002/03 UEFA Cup, the two met again in last season's Champions League, Real Madrid drawing 1-1 at the Etihad and beating Manchester City 3-2 at home.

Before the last meeting Mourinho observed that Italian managers 'think of football in relation to the opponent and change the way they play accordingly.' Having set City out in a 3-5-2 formation in the first encounter, Mancini fielded a 4-3-3 in the second.

Mancini has a better record against Chelsea, though. He has won six matches, lost four and drawn one during his time in Cottonopolis and Rome.

Away sides prevailed in each of last week's Champions League fixtures, none of them even conceding a goal. All the winners had finished top of their group in the previous stage. Barcelona's win at Manchester City saw Lionel Messi score his first goal in nine away games against English clubs. He has failed to score in all four games at Stamford Bridge.

The trend only continued so far last night, with Dortmund bashing Zenit St Petersburg but Manchester United going down at Olympiacos. All three other English clubs lost by two goals to nil.
Since the format changed in 1992/93 Galatasaray have reached the quarter-finals three times but have failed at that stage on each occasion, most recently 2013.


- Match preview by chelseafc.com (Rick Glanwill and Paul Dutton)