Ballack - Spirit back under Guus

Blues midfielder believes Hiddink has brought back fighting spirit

By Richard Bailey   Last updated: 10th March 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Ballack - Spirit back under Guus

Ballack: Chelsea of old

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Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack believes the fighting spirit and power that was absent under former manager Luiz Felipe Scolari has returned thanks to Guus Hiddink.

The Dutchman, who will stay on until the end of the season, replaced the former Portugal coach last month and has guided the club to five straight victories.

Ballack was reluctant to dwell on the recent past - the 32-year-old was said to have complained about Scolari to owner Roman Abramovich along with team-mates Petr Cech and Didier Drogba - but is optimistic over the future.

The turnaround in the club's fortunes, particularly in the Premier League where they have moved into second ahead of Liverpool, has meant that a title race between themselves and Manchester United could still be on the cards.

"I don't want to speak too much about the past," he said.

"We had a lot of good games under Luiz Felipe Scolari as well but, in the end we were struggling a little bit.

"We weren't having the success everyone expected so the club made a change. The players have to accept we have a new coach.

Difficult

"It's always difficult to change a coach in the middle of the season but we've come back to winning in the last five games, which is fantastic.

"He (Hiddink) has had great success in the past. He has a lot of experience and great charisma, and he's shown that in this short time with Chelsea.

"We are back winning. Even in a few weeks we came back to one of our biggest strengths which is the power, the fighting spirit of Chelsea.

"We can still play better, but we're on the way up. Everyone can see this and that's important."

Ballack reveals that when Hiddink took over the squad's more experienced players knew that they had to step up to the plate especially in the UEFA Champions League.

The Blues take a one-goal lead to Turin where they face Juventus in the second leg of their first knockout round tie on Tuesday.

"If you come to difficult games and situations in a season, it's always about the experienced players who go in front and handle those situations," he added.

"The young players have to play their part as well, I think they do it here. There's a good balance in the team. In previous seasons we did it well in this competition.

Future

"That's our target now as well. Our target is to win tomorrow, but also to reach the final. It's a long way, a hard way. But we have this balance in the team and we've shown it in the past. I hope we can show it in the future as well."

After a tight and tense affair at Stamford Bridge two weeks ago, with both sides squandering chances, the Germany skipper is expecting more of the same on Tuesday.

"It was tight in the first leg and that is what we expect tonight as well. We started well at Stamford Bridge and scored that early goal, but more important was the fact we didn't concede," he explained.

"We were very happy with the result but we know we've got another tough 90 minutes ahead of us. We're well prepared.

"You could see their strength after the goal. They have a lot of very good players in their team, so we expect another tight game tonight as well."