Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca downplays the magnitude of the 3‑0 win over Barcelona as he maintains focus on Arsenal.
Enzo Maresca called the victory “a big win” for him personally, especially because the opponent was Barcelona, yet he warned against over‑inflating its significance.
“Nothing changes in terms of what team we are, what we can achieve. For sure tonight’s win is important, but no more than that. It’s over, it’s finished, now we focus on the next one which is difficult again,” he said.
He emphasized the need to keep momentum while it’s easy to recover energy. “We need to keep the momentum because it’s very nice and it’s much easier to recover energy when you win games, for sure.”
Barcelona were unusually the second‑best side in possession, a deliberate piece of Maresca’s game plan honed at Cobham in recent days. “Barcelona is comfortable when they have the ball, but otherwise they are not so comfortable. We had the ball. We concentrated on ball possession and also circulating the ball,” Maresca explained.
The tactical focus was on aggressive positioning and denying Barcelona their comfort zone. “For me to have a good formation and good positioning is fundamental. We spent 85 percent of our training trying to work out how to be aggressive, how to attack our opponent because, as I said, Barcelona is too comfortable when they have the ball. So we needed to take that ball away, always, and circulate it,” he added.
Chelsea created plenty of chances, scoring three goals while having three disallowed, reflecting their dominance. “We tried to find opportunities. We scored three and then had three disallowed goals and many more opportunities, so I think we created enough to win the game.”
The Bridge erupted in a fantastic atmosphere, and Maresca praised the fans. “The feeling was very good, especially because it was at home with our fans. It’s always nice to share this kind of moment with them.”
However, the coach urged his players to switch off and recover in the next 48 hours. “My message after the game was just to recover energy, which in this moment is the most important thing, and then from Friday we start to think about Arsenal.”
