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Getting really rough for Rafa Benitez
THE Europa League draw with Rubin Kazan has landed Chelsea boss Rafa Benitez with a fixture pile-up that could derail their season.
We’ll just have to use different players in different games. I don’t know if I have ever been involved in so many games.
The draw for the quarter-finals yesterday handed Tottenham a date with Swiss club Basle and Newcastle a trip to Portugal to play Benfica. But Chelsea face the biggest headache with a visit to owner Roman Abramovich’s homeland.
After the international break, Benitez’s team will face six games in 16 days. If they beat Manchester United in an FA Cup quarter-final replay on April 1, they could be forced to play their semi-final against Manchester City at Wembley just three days after the second leg of the Europa tie against Kazan.
The FA Cup semi-final will be on Sunday, April 14 at 4pm, with Chelsea’s trip to Russia coming on the previous Thursday evening.
The venue for that game is to be confirmed next week. Rubin want it in their own stadium in Kazan – a five-hour flight away – rather than in Moscow where they met Levante in the last 16.
The first leg is three days after Chelsea face United in their replay, and Benitez, whose team face a possible 70-game season, said: “We’ll just have to use different players in different games. I don’t know if I have ever been involved in so many games.
“It does take a toll. For me the demands are too much.”
Barcelona will meet David Beckham’s Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.