Enzo Maresca discussed the performances of hat-trick hero Marc Guiu and the other young players who helped us end this stage of the UEFA Conference League in style with a 5-1 home win over Shamrock Rovers.
Guiu scored three goals, all in the first half. That left him as the competition’s top scorer at the end of the league stage, with six in total, being joined on the score sheet on Thursday evening by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Marc Cucurella.
The 18-year-old striker was one of three teenagers who impressed as part of a youthful Chelsea starting line-up for the visit of Shamrock Rovers, alongside new additions to the senior squad Josh Acheampong and Tyrique George.
The Spaniard underlined his potential by adding to the goal he scored against Noah and brace last time out at Astana in this competition, and Maresca was pleased to see him continue to make the most of his opportunities to impress.
‘With Marc the problem is sometimes we probably forget his age,’ said our head coach. ‘He is the same age as Josh and Ty, born in 2006.
‘He has already scored six goals in this competition and since the start he has been working well.
‘He is taking his chance and he knows that with Nicolas [Jackson] and Christo [Nkunku] there it is not easy for him, but it is important that he continues to work in the right way.’
With more young players joining those three off the bench, including a senior debut for defender Harrison Murray-Campbell, the future looks bright for the Blues.
However, it is the attitude of his players as much as anything which has pleased Maresca so far in our Conference League campaign, including this 5-1 win over Shamrock Rovers.
‘I’m very excited, first of all with the performance and the result,’ the Italian continued. ‘Once again I think the players showed how serious they are, how professional they are.
‘In this kind of game, sometimes it’s easy to drop but they know they are not allowed to drop and we need to show we are serious, professional. Once again I think they showed that.
‘It was also a good chance for some of the young players, so we are very happy.
‘When you play the first game it is never easy, so Harrison did quite well. We have seen that he is good on the ball, that he is also good defending. I think he deserved the chance to get minutes tonight and he did okay.’
With this latest win making it six wins out of six in the league stage – alongside an impressive 26 goals scored to just five conceded – Chelsea finished comfortably top of the table and are unsurprisingly one of the favourites to go all the way.
Also unsurprisingly, Enzo refuses to get ahead of himself, insisting the focus of him and his team remains purely on the next challenge, as has been the case in every competition all season.
‘I think now that we are in the next round we have to be focused on the next round, and then if we are able to win, go on to the next one. Thinking about playing the final or winning the competition when there is still six games to go to reach the final, I don’t think that is correct.’