MICHAEL BALLACK insists there is no danger of the Jose Mourinho circus distracting Chelsea from the job at hand on Tuesday night.

The former Blues boss will inevitably hog the limelight in the build up to the Stamford Bridge showdown, such is his standing in the club's history.

But the German midfielder says it will not be a factor in Chelsea's attempt to overhaul a 2-1 first leg deficit in their bid to reach the Champions League quarter-finals.

“If you saw the first game, there was a lot before the game and this is normal when a guy like him comes back,” Ballack said.

“The papers write about him and there will be a few comments and I think he will have a great response from the fans here, but I think we will put this to one side. We know what we have to do on the pitch and it doesn't affect us really.

“Of course it's a special moment that we play against him, but also we play against a good team with good players.

“I can only speak personally but I will focus on myself and on the team and it's really not a big theme in the dressing room.

“Most of the players worked with him a long time, but it's gone now and we have to keep going.”

Ballack believes the 4-1 thumping of West Ham at the weekend will do no harm to their hopes of getting the better of Inter.

“It's always good if you can win a game before such an important match,” he said.

“It gives us confidence, for sure, especially as we scored some goals, which we will need on Tuesday.

“It's a big opponent for such an early stage of the competition, but everybody's looking forward to the game.

“Inter have a lot of strength in defence, which we could see in the first leg, and we have to be 100 per cent focused if we want to get into the next round. We want to go to the final and we have to beat them.

“Maybe one goal is enough, you never know, I think both teams are physically strong. What will decide it is the concentration – the physical moment.

“Maybe we have a little bit of a plus because of the result on Saturday and because we have a home game, which is also a little bit of an advantage on this level, which you could see in the first leg. It will be very tight but all these little things, when they come together, will decide the game.”