Maurizio Sarri compares Carabao Cup to Champions League
The Blues are fighting at the fourth position in the Premier League and will face fifth-placed Arsenal on 19th January.
Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri insists that their Carabao Cup run is similar to like playing in Champions league ahead of their semi-final tie against Tottenham Hotspur.
The London club defeated Derby County and fellow Premier League club Bournemouth to have a place in the EFL Cup final four along with Tottenham, Manchester City and Burton. The fans will be treated with two derbies on 8th January and the reverse fixture on 22nd January.
“It is very difficult. The level of the opponent is very high,” said Sarri on Tottenham.
“We have had to play against Liverpool. Now we have to play against Tottenham, and in an eventual final it would probably be against Manchester City. It’s like playing in the Champions League, but in the League Cup,” he told Goal.
The last time the teams met at the Wembley, Tottenham had the last laugh beating Chelsea 3-1. Sarri accepted that his team still had issues back then.
He said, “The result was our fault. Of course they [Tottenham] are a great team, very dangerous, but we could have done better, especially in the first 20 minutes when we were out of the match mentally."
Tottenham's Dele Alli and Harry Kane scored inside 16 minutes and took a 2-0 lead against the Blues.
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“I saw my players in the dressing room after the match. They were destroyed. They needed only to realise why the match was so bad. It was very easy. The video of the first 15 minutes was clear. There was a big difference in mentality, aggressiveness, determination. It was clear for me and also the players," the Italian gaffer said.
“That match was really strange. It was after the international break, and probably we were not able to arrive to the match with the right mentality and focus. It can happen. Now we need to play another match. The level of determination now is good. But we still have to solve some problems. Sometimes during matches we have not had the right reaction to difficulties and negative situations," he said.
Chelsea defeated Nottingham Forest in their FA Cup 3rd round on the weekend.
[KH_RELATED_NEWS title="Related News"][/KH_RELATED_NEWS]“In the last match [against Nottingham Forest] we were not able to have the right reaction to a positive situation! After our second goal we conceded four shots on goal in two minutes. We need to learn we cannot lower our application in the defensive phase.”
The Blues are fighting at the fourth position in the Premier League and will face fifth-placed Arsenal on 19th January.
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