Liam Rosenior insisted "it doesn't matter about the age" of his Chelsea players as they prepare to take on Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16.
The Blues travel to the Parc des Princes on Wednesday, looking to take a positive result back to Stamford Bridge next week.
In terms of average age, Chelsea (24 years and 31 days) and PSG (24y 195d) are the two teams with the youngest starting XIs fielded in the Champions League this season.
The last knockout stage game in the competition to see both sides use a starting XI with an average age under 25 was in March 2012, with Bayern Munich (24y 319d) and Basel (24y 233d) both doing so in a round of 16 clash (second leg).
Despite Chelsea's lack of experience, Rosenior believes PSG's Champions League triumph proves age is not a defining factor in the competition.
"They won it last year," said Rosenior when asked about Chelsea and PSG players being so young.
"It doesn't matter about the age, I love working with good players. I love working with this group regardless of their age.
"Malo [Gusto] told me how old he was in the car on the way here. 22 and talking about going to a World Cup with France.
"Not only their ability, quality or physicality but their temperament."
Chelsea have only won two out of eight Champions League matches against PSG (D3 L3).
They have only lost more games against Bayern and Barcelona (four each) than PSG (three) in the competition.
Chelsea boss Rosenior will be the 16th manager to see his first knockout stage game in the Champions League come against the reigning champions.
Of the previous 15, only one of those has been victorious (D5 L9): Ralf Rangnick in April 2011 (Schalke 5-2 Inter, quarter-final first leg).
Rosenior revealed that he had taken inspiration from PSG boss Luis Enrique during the Englishman's time with Strasbourg.
"I don't have too big an ego to say I don't look at other coaches and learn from them," said Rosenior.
"I showed the Strasbourg players clips of PSG last year. They were magnificent at the time.
"I want to win tomorrow. The biggest mark of respect as a coach is when other coaches look at your game and say they like aspects of it, and it's nice because that's started to happen to me."