The scoreboard showed a decent, 3-1 margin of victory for Bayern Munich last night, and at times, it certainly felt like a classic “men versus boys” sort of affair as Chelsea huffed and puffed and tried oh so very hard, and then Bayern just, you know … just did it.
The Blues seemed to have the better of play in the first 15-20 minutes of each half (especially the first), but a few mistakes and lapses of concentration were all Bayern needed to mercilessly swat us aside. Cole Palmer’s goal immediately
after Harry Kane’s penalty restored hope of yet another second half turnaround, but after another promising start to a period, Kane’s second, off another turnover, sealed the deal for the home side. In a worrying trend, Chelsea have now conceded the first goal in all five of our games this season (even if two of them were subsequently ruled out by VAR).
Still, Enzo Maresca believes we can take something positive from this defeat.
“Personally I’m happy with the performance, because we knew how difficult it was to come here against this team. We knew that it was a very tough game, a difficult game, but overall I think we competed very well. In the first 20 minutes, again, we didn’t concede nothing, we created two chances, then we conceded the goal and changed the game.
“[…] The players were already aware of this competition, of the difficulties. You cannot commit mistakes in the way we have done, but it’s a game that, I just said to the players, it’s a game that we can learn a lot and build something special from this defeat.”
“[…] In terms of experience between them and us, I think there was a huge difference [but] we compete in the right way. Against this team and try to dominate and control the game for 95 minutes, 100 minutes. This is not reality. It’s difficult to adapt. So, in the way we compete for part of the game, we were very good. Probably the mistake we did, it’s something that we can learn from that. And as I said, I have the feeling that we can build something special from this defeat.”
-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London
Mistakes get punished mercilessly at this level. Avoiding them is of course easier said than done, but that’s what separates winners from the losers.
In the grand scheme of things, losing this game won’t determine our Champions League fates. But it could help define the path we take from here.
