MONTREAL -- Chelsea defender Gary Cahill has told ESPN FC it will be "incredibly difficult" to win the Champions League this season.
Chelsea have regularly been touted among the favourites to win the competition since Roman Abramovich's takeover in 2003, but their 2012 victory against Bayern Munich remains their only success to date.
Despite high expectations last season, they exited at the round-of-16 stage to Paris Saint-Germain and, while Cahill feels they are capable of going all the way this season, he recognises it will be tough.
"It's incredibly difficult to win the competition, as I found when we did it," the England centre-back said. "If you're asking if we've got the calibre of players to do it, yes, but so have many, many other teams.
"It's something that we want to go further in this year, for sure. It's something that's important to us and the football club, but again it's so difficult to win -- history's proven that. We're under no illusions, but we've got a strong squad."
Chelsea have not made major changes to the squad that won the Premier League last season, but Monaco striker Radamel Falcao has been brought in on a season-long loan.
Cahill said he had only faced Falcao once in training due to the Colombia international's late arrival after the Copa America, but he hopes he can follow in the footsteps of his former Atletico Madrid teammate Diego Costa.
"He brings a lot of experience at the highest level so hopefully he can hit the ground running like Diego did when he first came," Cahill said.
Falcao and Costa played in the same team at Atletico but, asked whether Jose Mourinho might do the same at Chelsea, Cahill replied: "Who knows?
"I suppose that's a question you'll have to ask the manager because we tend to play one up front, but of course you've seen the manager adapt for different games and different situations so I'm sure they can."
Cahill was reluctant to talk about Chelsea's efforts to sign Everton defender John Stones other than to say he would be "adding competition" at centre-back.
"It's hard to speak now," he said. "If it was to happen I would speak about it then."
ESPN FC's Alex Labidou contributed reporting to this story.