Football
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Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho not writing off Champions League hopes

Jose Mourinho has suggested Chelsea are capable of winning the Champions League this season, pointing to his previous surprise successes in the competition.

Mourinho was first appointed Chelsea boss in 2004 after his Porto side had defied the odds to win the Champions League, and he won the competition again with Inter Milan in 2010, when Barcelona and Real Madrid were the preseason favourites.

Meanwhile, Chelsea -- long considered one of Europe's top sides in the early Roman Abramovich era -- were only crowned champions of Europe in 2012, when a team coached by caretaker Roberto Di Matteo produced upsets against Barca and Bayern Munich.

The Blues have made a dismal start to the defence of their Premier League title this season but, speaking ahead of Tuesday's visit to Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Mourinho said their Champions League hopes should not be written off.

"I know, and also Chelsea, we know that sometimes you win when you are not the favourites," he told reporters. "When I won it twice with Porto and Inter we were far from favourites.

"We were not even top 10 favourites. When Chelsea won, it was a very bad season they had and they won it, so we know the Champions League has these big doses of unpredictability."

Chelsea are currently three points behind Group G leaders Porto and two points ahead of third-placed Dynamo Kiev, and Mourinho knows the importance of winning Tuesday's game in Israel.

"It's important now to qualify and hopefully in February, March when the Champions League becomes hot we are in a hot moment with better results in the Premier League too," he said.

"We have destiny in our hands. We can even reach 13 points if we win both of our last two matches, so let's try to qualify and live for the last match against Porto with a fight for the first [place].

"Objective one is to qualify. Objective two is to finish first, and if we win this game we have a big chance to qualify immediately, but a victory is good for both objectives."

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