Branislav Ivanovic has warned his Chelsea team-mates Maribor will be a wounded animal in their Champions League meeting tomorrow night.
Maribor proved pushovers last month but Serbian defender Ivanovic, who was addressing the media alongside Jose Mourinho, reckons it will be a different story on Wednesday and the hosts will still be hurting from their humbling in SW6.
He says: “At the moment we are doing very well but it's just the beginning, we know we can't relax. We can still improve.
“'The motivation of the Maribor players will be massive. The fact we won 6-0 in London makes it harder for us tomorrow.
“It's important for us to finish the group well but tomorrow will be a difficult game. It will 100 per cent definitely be a different game. We will approach it like in London.
"In the first game we scored at the right moment and the second goal as well, so we had a great game in the beginning and we controlled that, but Maribor had a really good part of the game when they played well.
"There are hard games on different pitches and we must learn from the past."
One player who didn’t feature for Maribor in that 6-0 hammering was defender Arghus.
The 26-year-old was an unused substitute at the Bridge and perhaps that explains his cautious optimism ahead of the reunion.
He said: "Chelsea are a big club, probably the biggest to ever come to our stadium.
"But I trust my colleagues, we believe in ourselves and we know that we can play against any team in the world.
"Of course Chelsea are big favourites, but they will have to beat our defence first.
"Yes, they are quick with a lot of creativity in attack. Everybody knows Chelsea - we watch them every week - so we know that they don't have any weaknesses.
"But at the same time we are not afraid of anyone."
Chelsea have taken a squad of 22 players to face Maribor, including a fit-again Diego Costa following his return from injury.
Follow all the build-up, matchday coverage and post-game reaction to Maribor v Chelsea on GetWestLondon.
