Didier Drogba insisted today that facing the wrath of Fenerbahce's passionate supporters held no fears for him. The Chelsea striker was initially earmarked for a role on the bench in Turkey tonight by boss Avram Grant with Nicolas Anelka leading the line up front.

Now, though, the Ivory Coast striker looks like getting the nod ahead of the former Bolton striker as Grant looks to secure a first-leg lead in the quarter-final tie.

Fenerbahce's Brazilian left back Roberto Carlos has told Chelsea that the intimidating atmosphere at the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium will be too much for them but Drogba has warned the Turks that the more they try to intimidate or abuse him the more likely he is to punish them by scoring.

Anelka spoke yesterday about the 'mad-ness of the Sukru' as he recalled the day he'd won the Turkish championship with them and how the team's victory bus, surrounded by thousands of ecstatic fans, could-n't crawl more than 500 metres through the madding crush in four hours.

But prolific Ivory Coast striker Drogba believes that the hotter the atmosphere, the more he will thrive.

"I've told Nico not worry if this stadium is as mad as he reckons it is because I'm not impressed, not intimidated and certainly not scared of the Fenerbahce fans," he insisted.

"It's just a football stadium and crazy, fanatical atmospheres are an everyday experience in African football.

"What's more, I told Nico that once you've played for Marseille you've had the final word in passionate fans. The truth is that I'm the kind of player who thrives on this.

"I love it when the opposition fans are on your back and it's nothing but a stimulus to playing well and scoring when the entire stadium seems to be roaring down at you.

"We are going to take Fenerbahce extremely seriously but the type of game and atmosphere we face tonight is a boost for a striker and I'm looking forward to it."

Grant has also sprung a surprise by including Florent Malouda for his first start since the FA Cup defeat at Barnsley last month.

The French winger impressed against England last week in his country's 1-0 win in Paris and that is thought to have led to Grant giving him another chance.

Michael Essien is set to play at right-back, where he started last week's 2-1 win over Arsenal, as Chelsea look to secure the kind of lead that Manchester United brought back from Rome last night and Drogba, who had initially feared being part of an all Premier League quarter-final, now thinks there will be an all-English final in Moscow next month instead.

Drogba added: "I had a fatalistic view that we'd draw one of the other three Premier teams but now I'm very happy to have to beat Fenerbahce instead.

"Playing abroad against a team you don't face twice more in a season is the very essence of the European Cup whereas drawing United, Arsenal or Liverpool would have meant a very 'Premier League' atmosphere.

"However, the draw means that if we can defeat Fenerbahce then we automatically face English opposition and at this stage I'd fancy us to be part of a final composed of two Premier League teams.

"Right now the two others who look best set up for reaching that final would be Manchester United and Liverpool.

"But everyone needs to be a little bit wary of Barcelona who don't look in top form right now but who have important experience of going far in this competition."

First, though, Chelsea must get past Fenerbahce, who are facing the biggest game in their history.

"We feel we are representing Turkish foot-ball," Diego Lugano, their Uruguayan defender, announced as he pondered the prospect of the Yellow Canaries becoming the nation's first side to reach the semi-final of Europe's biggest competition.

Grant and his side face a mammoth task tonight, according to Fenerbahce's English import Colin Kazim-Richards, "the only rule is that there are no rules."

It feels almost like a tie which head coach Grant can't win because Chelsea, even taking into account some uneven form of late, start as such strong favourites that if they do prevail over the two legs, it will earn him no kudos. Defeat, though, only offers something unthinkable - and potentially terminal - for the Israeli's career.

Hopefully, Grant doesn't believe in omens, because the last time time he was here on Champions League duty, he left as a loser and Fenerbahce celebrated a bit of history at his expense. In 1996, bringing his Maccabi Tel Aviv side here with a one-goal deficit in a qualifying round tie, he remembers how the crowd were already in full voice three hours before kick-off and how Jay-Jay Okocha sealed it for Fenerbahce with an early goal.

Yet his side battled on and did earn a 1-1 draw as their consolation. It couldn't stop Fenerbahce becoming only the second Turkish team ever to qualify for the Champions League proper but Grant's crew so frustrated the home side that Fenerbahce's then chairman, Ali Sen, refused to congratulate his players and instead told them: "Play like this again and I'll sack the lot of you."

What Grant would now give tonight to go back to London with a 1-1 draw and Fenerbahce in similar turmoil.

Visitors these days generally don't get so lucky - this season at home, Fenerbahce have beaten the champions of Belgium, Italy, Holland and Russia, not to mention Spain's UEFA Cup winners Sevilla - and manager Zico is adamant that playing here in the first leg and potentially forcing Chelsea to chase the game at Stamford Bridge next Tuesday is their best hope.