Atalanta matchwinner Charles De Ketelaere has revealed the Chelsea weakness his side were all the time confident of exposing in last night’s shock Champions League victory.
Enzo Maresca’s side on the right track for a worthwhile three points when Joao Pedro opened the scoring within the twenty fifth minute but a second half collapse saw the Blues sink to a harmful defeat.
With two games to play, the reigning Club World Cup holders at the moment are facing an uphill battle to achieve an automatic place within the last 16.
Chelsea took huge encouragement from their performance against Premier League pacesetters Arsenal earlier this month, but they’ve at the moment are winless in 4.
The character of the loss in Bergamo was particularly concerning given they in command of a contest that ultimately saw them lose a 41-game run of remaining unbeaten in Champions League games during which that they had led at half time.
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De Ketelaere, nonetheless, claimed his side had taken note of Chelsea’s recent leggy second half performances and after registering a goal and assist the Belgium international was comfortable to detail his side’s gameplan.
He said: ‘I feel mentally we were really strong against a robust opponent but I feel we knew possibly intensity-wise they drop a little bit bit within the second half.
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‘We saw that they get lots of goals against within the second half so we kept strong. Also we felt good in the sport and it paid off.’
Maresca, meanwhile admitted Chelsea ‘lost control’ of the match saying:’After the goal we conceded we lost control. Second half, we had two good probabilities to attain the second goal. Once we conceded the 1-1, we lost some concentration. We will avoid each of the goals we conceded. They’re easy goals.’
Chelsea had on top on the break and were heading towards the win that might have put them getting ready to an automatic place within the last 16.
The impressive Trevoh Chalobah, who had been booked, and Enzo Fernandez were then taken off which appeared to disturb the team’s rhythm and permit Atalanta back into it.
‘Each changes were because Trev and Enzo, they’re playing every minute of each game,’ said Maresca.
‘They’re each not 100 per cent. Trev was on a yellow card. That is the rationale why we modified them.’
Chelsea are prefer to now need wins in each of their remaining fixtures.
The face Cypriot side Pafos at Stamford Bridge in January before ending with a difficult trip to face Antonio Conte’s Serie A champions Napoli.
Fail to take maximum points and there’ll almost definitely be a play-off match to contend with in February, further complicating and already crowded schedule.
‘We’re aware (how crowded their schedule will likely be with a play-off),” said Maresca. “Absolutely. Now the sport is finished. The main target is on Saturday’s game (against Everton). We want to win games.
‘Probably we’d like two wins. Sixteen points might get you top eight, I’m unsure. The following one, of course, if we wish to complete top eight, we’d like to win each.’
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