Why Renato Veiga is more annoyed than most by Chelsea’s early cup exit | OneFootball

Renato Veiga is not yet a star player, but he’s one of the best talkers in the dressing room already, and it was no surprise that he was the one chosen from a young team to step up and face the cameras after defeat to Newcastle yesterday.

Whether intentionally or not he parroted the same line as Enzo Maresca – that Chelsea had been the dominant team in the game and had just been let down by a few bad minutes.

“We managed it well but then we had that period of ten minutes with the two goals where we couldn’t keep our balance,” Veiga said in quotes picked up by the club’s official website.

“The first goal was unfortunate, foul or no foul, we had no VAR. The second goal we can’t concede after the first goal. It’s important to keep our balance and as the coach said at half-time, not concede a goal in that way from a free-kick. But it is what it is. We had our chances,” the defender continued.

Enzo Maresca touches his brow after Newcastle defeat. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)

Veiga looks to the positives from disappointing defeat

“It was a good game from our side. We will keep the positives and learn from the negatives. We had the game, we followed the plan, and that’s football. That’s why it’s the beautiful game, because it’s unpredictable. We have to take our chances and we will do better. We focus on what we can control. We focus on the Premier League, we focus on the Conference League and we move on,” Veiga concluded.

It’s a loss which affects him more than most, as he’s very much a stalwart of Maresca’s B team. This competition was his chance to rack up important minutes and impress in increasingly significant games. Now he has just Conference League and FA Cup games to rely on.