New Chelsea ‘keeper Asmir Begovic has revealed his excitement at the prospect of playing Champions League football this season, according West London Sport.
The former Stoke City man has never played in the competition before but is hoping to feature this year under new boss Jose Mourinho, who likes to rotate his goalkeepers in the early stages of the competition.
The Bosnian told West London Sport:
It’s one of the competitions I haven’t played in, in my career. To be part of that will be great. I’m looking forward to it and being a part of this team.Hopefully we can do better than last year. If we can win two trophies like last year it’d be fantastic but a good run in the Champions League will be important for a club like this.
Chelsea has a relatively comfortable group on paper, with Mourinho’s former team FC Porto posing the biggest threat; though trips to Dynamo Kiev and Maccabi Tel-Aviv cannot be underestimated.
The Blues open their European campaign as they host Tel-Aviv on Wednesday 16th September, but it is a return to Premier League action beforehand, with a tough trip to Everton on Saturday.
And whilst rotation in the Champions League seems a formality, Begovic faces a tougher task battling for the number one spot in the Premier League.
But the Bosnia international, who was arguably Chelsea’s best player in the defeat to Manchester City, is enjoying the battle with Thibaut Courtois.
Thibaut is a world class goalkeeper. Training with these people every day makes you better as well.I’m enjoying the challenge of competing and playing with him every day. The rest of the staff, especially goalkeeping coach, Chris Lollichon, has been fantastic.
He continued:
I wanted to work with him [Lollichon] and the manager [Mourinho] has been great as well. My goal was to seek another challenge and come to one of the biggest clubs in the world. That goes for Thibaut. We want to win trophies and I want to test myself against the best. I’m enjoying the challenge and that was my main reason for coming here.
