Maresca has no regrets as second-string Chelsea exit cup | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca believes Chelsea’s performance demonstrated the wholesale changes to his team ‘worked’ despite defeat at Newcastle in the Carabao Cup.

Chelsea crashed out of the competition in the fourth round after a 2-0 defeat to Newcastle at St James’ Park.

The result came just days after Chelsea beat Newcastle in the Premier League, with Maresca opting to change his entire 11 for the trip to Tyneside on Wednesday night.

Alexander Isak opened the scoring on 23 minutes as Newcastle’s high-press reaped its rewards, before Axel Disasi’s own goal doubled the host’s lead moments later.

Maresca was pleased with the overall performance from his team and said Chelsea lost the game because of a poor 10-minute spell.

“I think it [making 11 changes] worked if we analyse the performance. If we analyse the result, then it didn’t work,” he said at his post-match press conference.

“But I think for 23 minutes, until their goal, we were in control of the game and didn’t concede anything. Then after the goal, we lost control for ten minutes, when we conceded the second goal, and then for the last ten minutes of the first half, we created two or three clear-cut chances when we unfortunately didn’t score and in the second half we were in control of the game.

“So I know the most important thing is the result but with the performance, we lost the game because of ten minutes and for the rest we were quite good.”

Asked how the performance differed from the weekend win against Newcastle, Maresca said his team were punished for mistakes in possession despite little difference in the home side’s approach.

“I didn’t see a big difference [in how Newcastle played tonight]. I think in the last game they were more or less in the same way as tonight, trying to be aggressive. Today I think we did quite well.

“The first goal is one we can avoid because we know playing through the middle, we know they are quite aggressive so the solution was to go outside but it can happen.

“I didn’t see a big difference between tonight and Sunday. For sure, they needed to win this game to build momentum because of their last results.”

Read – Five players who impressed in the Carabao Cup this week

See more – Carabao Cup quarter-final draw: Spurs host Man United

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