Power boost for Ancelotti

Carlo Ancelotti believes Chelsea's superior "strength and power" can help them beat Barcelona to this season's Champions League title.

Barca are hot favourites to land their fourth European Cup, with some observers even dubbing them the best club team of all time and Chelsea may well need to defeat them if they are to realise their own Champions League dream.

"Barcelona now are the best team in Europe," said the Italian, whose side will join Barca in the quarter-finals barring a shock in their last-16 second leg against FC Copenhagen on Wednesday. "The performances of Barcelona at this moment are fantastic, but every game is a different story. If we have to play them, we have to try to find a solution to beat them."

Ancelotti suggested "strength and power" were the way to combat Barca's peerless passing game.

The tactic certainly worked for European Cup holders Inter Milan last season, while Chelsea were desperately unlucky not to topple Barca a year earlier.

Arsenal tried to fight fire with fire in their last-16 clash with the Spanish champions and were brutally exposed, just as they were last term.

Ancelotti was at pains to point out a meeting with Pep Guardiola's team was not a foregone conclusion, insisting his side still had plenty of work to do on Wednesday.

"We have to pay attention," he said. "Copenhagen are a good team with good organisation."

Admitting the 2-0 win in Copenhagen in the first leg was the "turning point" of his side's stuttering season, Ancelotti said: "Copenhagen was an important match to move on.

"It gave us confidence, optimism, not just the result."