Chelsea players celebrating their Europa League victory in Holland... on Wednesday. Chelsea beat Benfica 2-1 in the final.

Chelsea will attempt to kick their Champions League campaign into gear at the second attempt on Tuesday when they visit Steaua Bucharest for their second Group E fixture.

The London club were stunned 2-1 by FC Basle in their first group outing and can ill afford further setbacks with a double-header against Schalke to come.

Chelsea last season became the first defending champions to be eliminated in the group phase and manager Jose Mourinho has described the  match as “the game that we cannot lose”.

“Even a draw, probably, is not a good result for us, so now we have to prepare ourselves,”  the Portuguese, who is bidding to win the competition with a third different club, told AFP.

“We have to get 12 points to be out of any danger, so if we lose there we still have four matches to play and we will have to win them all. We don’t want to put ourselves under so much pressure.”

Chelsea do not have fond memories of their last visit to Bucharest, however, having lost 1-0 to Steaua in the away leg of a Europa League last 16 tie in March before winning the second leg 3-1.

Centre-back Vlad Chiriches claimed Steaua’s goal at Stamford Bridge, but he has since left the Romanian capital for Tottenham  and was on the bench for his new side’s 1-1 draw at home to Chelsea on Saturday.

Juan Mata tipped the momentum of the game in Chelsea’s favour after coming on as a halftime substitute at White Hart Lane and Mourinho subsequently confirmed that he would start at Steaua’s Arena Nationala.

Should Mourinho elect to make further alterations to his starting XI, Gary Cahill, Samuel Eto’o and Willian are among the players who could be drafted into the team.

Eden Hazard  will not  take part in the game  due to injury.

Striker Fernando Torres was included despite facing a domestic ban following his dismissal and altercation with Jan Vertonghen in Saturday’s draw at Tottenham.

Beaten 3-0 at Schalke in their Group E opener, Romanian champions Steaua warmed up for Tuesday’s game with a 3-0 win at home to Poli Timisoara in the domestic championship on Saturday.