Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has admitted that his side need to pick up points in their Champions League double header against Schalke, but insisted that it was too early to start talking about where they would finish in the group.
Chelsea have won one and lost one of their two games in the competition so far, leaving them three points behind current group leaders Schalke going into tomorrow's match against the Bundesliga side.
However, Mourinho believes that his side should be able to play without the fear of potentially failing to qualify from the group stages for a second consecutive season until at least the penultimate game.
"I don't think it's yet the time to have the calculator and to be counting the number of points you need to qualify, or to be first or second, or to go into the Europa League," Mourinho told reporters.
"The calculator comes on the fifth fixture. The third and the fourth are still fixtures we can play just thinking about the game and trying to win, and if you cannot win try to get a point. We lost the first match at home but won the second away, so we found a balance.
"We play two matches against the strongest opponent in the group, which leaves us the fifth and sixth fixture to play against Basel and Steaua. We need points over these two matches [against Schalke]. That's obvious. But we're in condition to play without thinking about finishing first or second."
Mourinho is bidding to become only the second manager to win Europe's premier competition three times having previously won it with Porto in 2004 and Inter Milan in 2010.
Barney Corkhill
