Chelsea “one of the best clubs” claims key figure from tonight’s game | OneFootball

We’ve already covered Enzo Maresca’s pre-match press conference in some detail – how about taking a look at what the Italian’s opposite number, Barcelona coach Hansi Flick, has said in the build up to tonight’s game in the Champions League?

Chelsea “one of the best clubs” claims Flick

A generic group photo of Chelsea. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Former Germany manager Flick was full of praise for the Blues and their development as a team. He clearly is a huge fan of Enzo Maresca and what he’s doing.

“For me, Chelsea are one of the best clubs in the world. The evolution of this club has been fantastic. They have very good young players and a great coach. I really appreciate what they’re doing,” the Barcelona coach said in his presser yesterday.

“They are proactive with the ball, and so are we. They want to press and we do too, both teams want the ball.”

He also had wider comparisons to draw between the age and development of the sides:

“Chelsea’s development is fantastic, both the players and the coach. It’s great to watch them play. They’re a young team, and for us it has to be a good match; we have to compete. We have confidence and we will fight as we always do.”

Well given all of the above, we should be expecting a really exciting and open game tomorrow. We’re not sure it will quite play out like that…

In Barcelona build up news…

We don’t expect to see Cole Palmer tonight – he’s been very much ruled out by his manager. But there’s no doubt that he’s getting close to a return from injury, despite a unique setback.

Lamine Yamal was compared to Estevao Willian in the press conference, and you can imagine just how Enzo Maresca dealt with that comparison.