Graham Potter and Chelsea face Champions League crunch clash against Borussia Dortmund

Until last September, when Graham Potter found himself abruptly thrust into the position of Chelsea manager, he had never so much as attended a match in the Champions League . It was a curious gap in the career of a coach who has always been intrepid, an Englishman who built up his reputation in provincial Sweden by taking Ostersund from the lower divisions into the Europa League, and who established Brighton as a force in the Premier League. Taking up a VIP spectator seat at European Cup games is no measure of a coach’s potential. Potter has mostly been too busy to travel on midweek evenings to events he could more easily watch on television. Yet six months into a Chelsea career that began with a group stage fixture between the 2021 European champions and Salzburg , he cannot help wondering if there may be a wait rather longer than half a year after Tuesday’s meeting with Borussia Dortmund, before he again experiences, live, the atmosphere of a Champions League night. His team are trailing 1-0 from the Dortmund leg of their last-16 tie ; Chelsea are only in the top half of the Premier League thanks to goal difference, and 11 points beneath fourth place, the last of the qualifying spots for next season’s Champions League. On potency — goals scored — Chelsea would sit 14th in the domestic table. On form they look alarmingly mismatched with the latest visitors to Stamford Bridge. Dortmund are chasing an 11th successive victory, and looking to maintain a 100 per cent record since they returned to action after the break for the World Cup, a run that has thoroughly endorsed the club’s decision to appoint Edin Terzic as manager last summer. The 40-year-old had previously held a number of Dortmund roles, including interim coach in 2020/21. He had been a fellow student of Potter’s as they earned their professional badges. They stay in touch, have a bond and some empathy: Terzic knows what it is to encounter scepticism and how, being promoted sharply upwards invites criticism that, as a young manager, you may not be ready for the bigger stage. Terzic heard some of that in his first spell in charge of Dortmund’s first-team. Potter, who has overseen just two victories in 12 games since the new year, has lately listened to loud booing and derision of his pedigree, although he is eager to channel any goodwill from the grandstands generated by Saturday’s 1-0 home win against Leeds United . “When you win a game, your smile comes back,” said Potter. “Fans are entitled to air their view and they have been suffering, like the rest of us. They want the team to go through and know how important they are. They will help make it tough for Dortmund. Our thoughts are on being positive.” The manager’s mood will improve considerably if, after a fitness examination Tuesday morning, Reece James is deemed ready to take part. The right wing-back missed the Leeds game with a tight hamstring. Midfielder N’Golo Kante, out since August, is also in training, although the Dortmund visit is too early in his comeback timetable. Chelsea are hardly short of big-match calibre, for all that their manager is new to the environment. Nine of the squad who travelled to Porto to beat Manchester City in the European Cup final 22 months ago are still at Potter’s disposal and a huge outlay in the winter transfer window has brought in a World Cup winner, in Enzo Fernandez , and a playmaker, Joao Felix , who had secured league titles in two different countries, Portugal and Spain, by the time he turned 21. Felix is still only 23, but should this evening play his 38th game in Uefa competition. He acknowledged on Monday that being in the Champions League will be a factor in any choices he makes about his medium-term future. He is on loan until June from Atletico Madrid, and the player and Chelsea are weighing up whether to push for a permanent move. “The Champions League is a competition everyone wants to play in, an important decision,” Felix said, “but nobody knows about the future, and we have a lot of games in the league yet to try to reach the Champions League.” Alternatively, Chelsea could qualify by going past Dortmund, through the next two rounds and winning the final in Istanbul in June. Given their goalscoring record — just two in their last seven games — that sounds a tall order. “The lack of goals is frustrating,” said Felix, whose strike against West Ham United last month, from a Fernandez pass, is so far the most substantial return from the winter recruits. “You have to keep working and pushing and the goals will appear.”

Graham Potter and Chelsea face Champions League crunch clash against Borussia Dortmund

Premier League side are 1-0 down going into Tuesday's second leg at Stamford Bridge