“You cannot…” – Enzo Maresca blames one thing for Chelsea defeat; it’s not the referee | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca was absolutely fuming during yesterday’s defeat to Bayern Munich as he felt his team should have benefitted from a couple of refereeing decisions that went the other way.

But by full time he had calmed down enough to take a more philosophical view on things.

Maresca blames defeat on “mistakes” you “cannot make”

Enzo Maresca remonstrated with the referee. (Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

“I think the players were already aware of how difficult this competition is,” Maresca reflected.

“You cannot make mistakes in the way we did, but it is a game that I think we can learn a lot from and build something special from this defeat. In terms of experience, between them and us, I think there was a huge difference.”

He’s not wrong – Chelsea had around 60 Champions League games played by their whole squad, while Bayern had more than 500.

Maresca backs Chelsea for success despite bad result

Maresca actually thought his team had done well despite the gulf in experience:

“Whether it is because of the games they have played in the Champions League or because of the age, it does not matter. But in Munich no doubt we showed that we can compete right away,” the coach continued.

“I played in this stadium in this competition when I was assistant coach with Sevilla and Man City, so I know how difficult it is to come here and compete. You cannot expect to come to this stadium against this team and try to dominate and control the game for 95 minutes.

“So the way we competed for part of the game, we were very good. The mistakes we made are something we can learn from, and I have the feeling that we can build something special from this defeat. We have seven more games so there are plenty of points left.”