“We need to learn” Chelsea striker admits his team were too naïve in defeat | OneFootball

With the news that Liam Delap is going to miss some time, Joao Pedro really needed to score last night to get his bad run of form behind him.

He managed that – but in the end the game was a defeat which made it hard to take too many positives.

JP on the goal that didn’t win a point

Joao Pedro in action for Chelsea. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

“We are disappointed because we came here to win the game,” the striker said in quotes on the club’s official website.

“We started well and scored first, but in the Champions League, if you give chances to the opoonents, if they can score, it makes it a difficult game because they are a strong team.

“I think the first half we controlled the game, we started well, and we had chances to score more. I think for 10 minutes in the second half, when they scored, they had the home support behind them, which helped them.

“In the Champions League, if you concede one goal early [in the second half] and a second goal, it is difficult to come back. We need to learn because we are disappointed, and we have to be focused on the next game.’

“I think Chelsea brought me [to the club] to score, and I scored my first Champions League goal, but it wasn’t enough.”

While we got no points from the game, if we did at least take away a confidence boost for our striker which carries forward into the game this weekend, that would be a positive.

In other news…

While Maresca is getting a lot of criticism for his rotations, he’s simultaneously running some of his players into the ground. It’s a tough situation for the manager.

Youtuber Matisse Armani unloaded on the manager for his decisions in the second half, turning a lead in a winnable game into a defeat with a whole messy confusion of system changes and subs in the second period.