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“But now…” – Enzo Maresca’s answer when asked if Chelsea can win the Champions League

Chelsea have just won their second Champions League game in a row, putting them back into contention for the next round of the competition.

After the game, manager Enzo Maresca was asked about the game and what he thought the win said about his team’s chances of winning this competition.

Enzo Maresca plays down expectations after big Champions League win

Enzo Maresca speaking about Cole Palmer and Estevao Willian.

“We always say the same, but at the end it’s because it’s true. We go always game by game,” the Chelsea manager replied.

“I think tonight was good to win, to continue the momentum, but now in 48 hours we have one more game that is very demanding, a Premier League game against Sunderland. I think [the win] is good for everyone, for the club, but it’s a win and personally it doesn’t mean too much in terms of the season. It’s just important to continue to play games, to try to win, to try to improve players and this is the main thing,” the coach concluded.

Of course, he’d be crazy to say anything else really. It was a good win but one heavily conditioned by the early red card for the opposition (who are not great shakes even with eleven on the pitch). We had actually started pretty poorly before they shot themselves in the foot.

Equally, if we were to play a Champions League knockout game tomorrow, about ten of our starting eleven tonight would be different, so it’s hard to know what our real level is.

In other news…

Estevao Willian was sensational once again in his latest start. Creatively he’s carrying this team with Cole Palmer out, and at full time Maresca compared their career trajectories and how the Brazilian could follow in Palmer’s footsteps effectively.

Meanwhile, at the back, Wesley Fofana was hurting in the second half tonight, but didn’t get what he wanted when he made an unusual request of Maresca.