Maresca names the one victory that prepared Chelsea most for Barca win | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea team have just beaten Barcelona 3-0 at Stamford Bridge, and the coach should be very proud.

He’s coached his team to some important wins, but this might be his biggest achievement yet. We needed to show we were back at the Champions League level, and we sure did that.

Maresca praises his players after big win

Chelsea celebrates Club World Cup as a group. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

His previous peak was perhaps the Club World Cup win against PSG back in July, and according to the Blues coach, that was all part of Chelsea’s preparations for this:

“Yeah. For sure [it helped],” Maresca said.

“Winning the Club World Cup gives the players the confidence that they need. Last year, we were playing in the Conference League, and I said many times that for me personally, if you want to build a winning mentality, there is only one way. Winning games. Because otherwise, if you don’t win games, it’s difficult to convince the players, guys, we are building a winning mentality. But when we don’t win, it’s difficult.

“So the only way in any competition, Conference League, Champions League this season, Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup, is to win games. It’s the only way to build the winning mentality. And I think the Conference League and the Club World Cup last season helped a lot. And now we are trying to do exactly the same. For sure, the players are better players in this moment compared to last season, because we spent more time together.”

In other news…

Enzo Maresca also discussed the fact that his team kept a clean sheet against Barcelona, meaning they had broken a pretty impressive streak set by the Catalan side.

The Blues were serenaded by their fans all night, and Estevao’s performance in particular got him some amusing treatment from the supporters…