Avram Grant, the Chelsea manager, is willing to sacrifice his principles and win ugly against Fenerbahce to keep his side's Champions League challenge alive.

The Turkish champions are unbeaten in their past 11 European matches at the Sukru Saracoglu stadium and should present Chelsea with tough opposition in their quarter-final first leg.

Grant understands that threat and, despite declaring a commitment to entertaining football when he took charge at Stamford Bridgte, would happily ditch it tomorrow evening.

“We try to combine entertainment and results but we can’t do it all the time,” he said. “In the Champions League it is more important to qualify. We try to do both but after these two games it is more important to qualify for the semi-finals.

"We always try to play our game but we are not the only team on the pitch. Fenerbahce are a good team. They scored lots of goals in the Champions League and play good football.

“They performed very well in the group stage and also against Sevilla in the last round. I respect their game very much but we believe in our strength to win. Our target is to succeed in the Champions League, it doesn’t matter who the opponent is."

Fenerbahce have beaten Inter Milan, PSV Eindhoven and Sevilla at home and Grant knows the match is certain to be played in a hostile atmosphere, despite a seemingly warm welcome to the country.

A group of Galatasaray fans gathered at Istanbul airport on Monday to welcome Chelsea ahead of the match against the Turkish club's local rivals, confusing Grant who thought they were Fenerbahce supporters.

At least Grant has emerged unscathed from the Sukru Saracoglu stadium before, though, having drawn 1-1 there with Maccabi Tel-Aviv in the 1996-97 Champions League qualifying round.

“I want to say thank you to the Turkish fans. They gave us a very warm welcome. The flowers were nice,” he said. “When I played here 11 years ago, we came three hours before the game and the stadium was already full.

"We made a good result then, 1-1. Maybe it will be a good result for us this time. Jay-Jay Okocha scored a goal and we missed a lot of chances. We played very well. It was a long time ago. The atmosphere was fantastic.

“I like this atmosphere, it’s a good atmosphere for football and we expect it will be the same."