Laudrup urges Swans to go on offensive
Michael Laudrup has encouraged his Swansea side to be bold and not sit on their 2-0 lead when they host Chelsea in the second leg of their Capital One Cup semi-final.
Swansea stand on the brink of a first appearance at a major cup final after they stunned the European champions with a smash-and-grab raid at Stamford Bridge in the first leg.
Michu and Danny Graham grabbed the goals to put the south Wales club within sight of Wembley and stoke up the excitement within the city.
Laudrup has been quick to play down expectation levels, and has pointed to Chelsea's excellent away record as evidence the tie could yet get away from his side.
And the Dane knows attempting to simply hold on to their advantage could be a recipe for disaster.
He said: "They have been much better away that at home.
"They won 4-0 at Stoke, they got five against Southampton and against Leeds. They also won at Everton, so they are maybe the best away team in the Premier League.
"It is different to start a game from 0-0 rather than 2-0, but the only danger is if we think can go out and just defend, 90 minutes is a very long time to do that.
"We have to be prepared to do a little of both. We have to try and get on the ball and look to attack, although we know there will be moments when we have to accept we will have to defend.
"For me and the players this is fantastic, and I would imagine it is for fans as well.
"We're not a club can pretend we go into these games very often, so now we have a possibility, a fantastic chance and we will do our best, and more than that if we can."
John Terry is in contention for a first start since November for Chelsea.
Terry has made just one brief substitute appearance since suffering a knee injury against Liverpool, 10 days ago against Stoke, and was an unused replacement for the draw with Southampton and Sunday's defeat of Arsenal.
Nigeria duo John Obi Mikel and Victor Moses are at the African Nations Cup while long-term absentee Oriol Romeu (knee) remains sidelined.
Despite needing to beat Swansea by at least three goals to advance, boss Rafa Benitez is unlikely to partner Fernando Torres and #7million signing Demba Ba up front.
He said: "It's not easy for us to play both at the same time given the quality of the players playing behind. It's an option for 15 minutes, and we can do it if necessary.
"We have confidence that we can do it. It's not easy, but we've done it before in other stadiums and we can do it.
"We have to score and win. For them, it depends: 2-0 up, they could wait and play counter-attack.
"They could try to pass the ball and attack, but I think they will wait for us.
"We have to go there and try to win. Not just 1-0 - we have to do a bit better than that. But we can do it. We have enough quality."
Source: PA
Source: PA