Failure drives Ballack forward

Chelsea midfielder eyes glory on three fronts

Last updated: 16th April 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Failure drives Ballack forward

Ballack: Wants silverware

Related links

Teams

Players

Also see

Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack is being driven towards success this season by the bitter memories of last term's failures.

The Blues are through to a UEFA Champions League semi-final meeting with Barcelona, tackle Arsenal in the last four of the FA Cup on Saturday and remain in the Premier League title chase.

Ballack and his team-mates narrowly missed out on three trophies last term as they were undone by Tottenham in the Carling Cup final before Manchester United proved to be their nemesis in both the Premier League and Champions League.

And the German international believes they can challenge on all three fronts under Guus Hiddink after their barren campaign when Avram Grant replaced Jose Mourinho.

Hungry

Ballack told the Evening Standard: "The team are hungry after finishing runners-up three times last season.

"We are not a team who have won everything in the past. If you compare us to Liverpool, they have had big success.

"But now we are smelling the success. We are coming close to winning something. This club needs a big title to go further and that's what we are trying for.

"I want to win something. I have a few years ahead but I will give everything for the rest of the season to win one, two or three trophies."

Fantastic

Ballack is out for revenge against the Gunners after Arsene Wenger's men came from behind to triumph 2-1 at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League earlier in the season.

He said: "We want to show Arsenal we can beat them after what happened before. We were controlling the game until they scored an offside goal.

"Getting to the Champions League semi-final has given us a confidence boost going into another big game. Arsenal have a squad and a team that can play football but sometimes they can be up and down.

"That is why they are sometimes not at the top of the league but, if they play at their highest level, they can play fantastic football."