Exclusive Koulibaly: Playing in front of 80,000 Dortmund fans is never easy but at the Bridge we win

EXCLUSIVE by Alessandro Schiavone

Kalidou Koulibaly is adamant that Chelsea will advance to the last eight of the Champions League on the basis of what they showed in their 1-0 first-leg defeat and their home advantage.

Three weeks ago Graham Potter's men dominated the game and peppered Borussia Dortmund's goal only for Karim Adeyemi to deliver the sucker punch with a terrific solo effort.

But ex-Napoli star Koulibaly, who looks set to play tonight in the absence of the injured Thiago Silva and cup-tied Badiashile, talked up the Blues' chances of springing a surprise against the in-form Bundesliga table toppers, who have won ALL of their 10 games in 2023.

He exclusively told Capital Football: “We can come out on top. All we need to do is believe we can do it and win at home.

“We knew it was going to be difficult, playing in Dortmund in front of 80,000 fans always is.

“It’s a shame we conceded that goal because we had been playing well until then and had a lot of the ball and many chances to score."

Yet even if they had avoided defeat at Signal Iduna Park, the west Londoners would still have had to aim for victory tonight.

The Senegal international continued: “The tie is still open and even with a draw we’d have had to win at home, so it doesn’t change a lot.

"That said, we still believe we can qualify for the Champions League via the league, we keep believing and see then what happens.”