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Enzo Maresca has admitted to fears over the artificial pitch at the 3Arena potentially causing injuries when Chelsea face Djurgården in the first leg of their Conference League semi-final.
Negotiating a surface that has attracted plenty of criticism in recent weeks will be a key challenge for Maresca’s team when they face their Swedish hosts on Thursday.
Although the head coach insisted that he does not intend to prioritise Chelsea’s home game against Liverpool on Sunday, even though victory against the new Premier League champions would boost hopes of Champions League qualification, he acknowledged that his players will be susceptible to injury on Djurgården’s pitch.
“For sure it can be a concern,” Maresca said. “I’m a little bit worried about that. But we are not in a moment where we can say we decide to save players for Sunday. This is a semi-final, it’s a European competition and we want to be in the final.”
Chelsea got a feel for the surface when they trained at the 3Arena on Wednesday night. Players looked unimpressed when they tested the bounce of the ball. There was little give from the turf. The Djurgården striker, August Priske, called it a “shitty pitch” in early April.
“It’s completely different,” Maresca said. “I know that in the last weeks even some of their players were complaining about the pitch. They play every week, so for us it’s a different one. But there are no excuses, no reasons why we are not going to compete tomorrow and the second game at home.”
Chelsea are the richest club in this competition and the level of expenditure on their squad goes beyond anything that Djurgården could hope to afford. However Maresca looked to stamp out any possibility of complacency before facing opponents lying in 11th place in Sweden.
“You don’t win games and titles with money,” the Italian said. “We know that very well. So it’s not about how much you spend. You are not going to win games or titles just because you spend big money. You have to spend money, but in the right way. we are now in the Conference League semi-final, we are fighting in our league and hopefully we can finish better in both competitions.”
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Chelsea travelled to Stockholm without Roméo Lavia, who was omitted from the Conference League squad because of load management, and the injured duo of Robert Sánchez and Christopher Nkunku. Maresca said it is too early to know if Nkunku will play again this season.
The club have agreed a deal for Damac, a Dubai property company, to be their front-of-shirt sponsor until the end of the season.
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