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Steaua looking to 'annihilate' Chelsea

Steaua Bucharest manager Laurentiu Reghecampf says his side are ready for a tough contest against Chelsea © Getty Images

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Steaua Bucharest will be hoping to "annihilate" Chelsea from the Europa League on Thursday - and may use the Stamford Bridge crowd to serve their purposes.

Steaua head to London with a 1-0 advantage and will be looking to score an early goal to ignite the recent frustration felt against interim coach Rafael Benitez permeating through much of the Chelsea faithful.

"We are well aware that the supporters, the crowd, has a very big role, a very important role, especially if we were to go ahead early," Steaua boss Laurentiu Reghecampf said.

"That would not create a great atmosphere for the home team. We will try to score early and play well."

Steaua knocked out Dutch giants Ajax en route to the last-16 and defender Mihai Pintilii said past successes had instilled a budding confidence within the team.

"They are a very good side. They have some great individual players and extraordinary talent in their team," Pintilii said.

"We will be trying to annihilate them and to just play the way we can play."

Reghecampf echoed his defenders thoughts, but admitted his squad was prepared for any eventuality.

"As always we will be trying to win the game," Reghecampf said. "Of course it will be very difficult but I have a team that really likes to play football.

"It is a very important match for everybody. Not only myself. It's very important for my team and also Romanian football.

"Chelsea are the strongest team we have met so far and I'm sure we will have some difficulties.

"We have practised penalties. We will see [on Thursday night].

"If I'm afraid of anything or if I'm concerned about anything then it's my own team. We had a not so pleasant game in Amsterdam, where we were not able to play the way we would like to. Now my main concern is to try to get my players ready to play the way we would like to.

"If they play the way they played in the first leg and we can play the way we played in the first leg, we can of course win it."

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