Chelsea face uphill struggle to get into UCL last 16 with familiar faces in the way | OneFootball

Chelsea now face a real uphill struggle if they want to qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League after last night.

The Blues got beat 2-1 by Atalanta, with head coach Enzo Maresca getting some big criticism for his subs that he made in the game, many attributing this to the main reason why they lost the game.

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At one point, Maresca had THREE full backs playing in centre midfield, when you count Marc Cucurella playing the annoying inverted full back role – basically a centre midfielder in possession. Yet Andrey Santos was an unused sub.

Also, when Wesley Fofana got injured, instead of putting Josh Acheampong at centre back and using one of the two other right backs he had on the pitch, he took Fofana off and put Tosin Adarabioyo on, who has been awful in recent games.

Even still, Maresca has defended his decisions and the subs he made, even doubling down on them in his post-match interview. Madness.

Joe Cole was unhappy with the defeat in his post-match analysis for TNT Sports and once again highlighted the lack of experience being a big issue at this club, which is genuinely is and has been for years.

Familiar faces

As things currently stand, Chelsea are 11th in the league stage of the UCL but could slip further down the table depending on results elsewhere today.

16 points could be enough for a top eight finish to automatically qualify for the last 16, so Chelsea must beat Pafos and Napoli to have any chance of this.

If they do not get automatic qualification they will face playing two extra games in the playoffs to try and get there, and no club wants an extra games right now.

They will also have David Luiz and Antonio Conte stood in our way! Luiz currently plays for Pafos, and Conte is the Napoli manager! Yikes.