Enzo Maresca points finger of blame after Chelsea’s disappointing Qarabag draw

Chelsea could only earn a point against Qarabag in the Champions League and were forced to come from behind in Azerbaijan after some defensive errors that proved frustrating for Enzo Maresca

Enzo Maresca appeared to suggest that Chelsea are paying the price for their early season exploits in the Fifa Club World Cup after they only managed a 2-2 draw against Qarabag in the Champions League.

The Blues escaped Azerbaijan with a point after going 2-1 down. Estevao Willian fired Chelsea into the lead to give the west London side hope of some happy travelling within the first 15 minutes. Maresca would soon have his head in his hands, though, as the Blues allowed the opposition back into the game.

Jorrel Hato’s defending came under scrutiny as his error saw Leandro Andrade level the scoreline before the former Ajax ace was judged to have handled the ball in the area. Marko Jankovic converted from the penalty spot before Alejandro Garnacho stepped off the bench to salvage a point.

Maresca made seven changes to the side that beat Tottenham and pointed to the side’s Club World Cup campaign when he was asked about his decision to do so, as well as blasting aspects of Chelsea’s performance in both boxes.

“The big difference today for me was inside the box,” said Maresca. “The goal we conceded, they are silly goals for me. In their box, for the amount of times that we arrived, we have not been clinical enough. So this is the big difference for me.”

READ MORE: Chelsea given immediate Jorrel Hato VAR penalty verdict after Qarabag controversyREAD MORE: Chelsea slam racist abuse in statement after game suspended and demand UEFA response

Defending his team selection, Maresca added: “The Club World Cup affects a lot. We try to rotate. When you win, no one mentions all that. When we don’t win, everyone is focused on that, and now I think it’s important to recover energy for Saturday and go again.”

Chelsea captain Reece James was equally critical of Chelsea’s defending, highlighting the errors that contributed to the Blues falling behind. The 25-year-old indicated that his team’s defending is proving to be a wider concern with opposition sides not requiring to make amazing plays to find the Chelsea net.

“Disappointing to sum up,” said James. “Coming here, we wanted to win. We felt that we set up strong, but we made two errors that led to a penalty and a goal that we gifted them, and then to get back into the game is difficult.

“Their fans were quite good tonight. The pitch was difficult to play, but this is something we expected and didn’t quite adapt to.”

“Two mistakes led to two goals, and it’s difficult when the momentum in the game changes, and we simply didn’t do enough,” he added. “We had a few chances we didn’t take and we only have ourselves to blame.

“If you look at the goals that we have conceded, they haven’t been from amazing play, more our mistakes, and that is something we need to cut out.”

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