Antonio Conte and Chelsea will have to go all out and attack when they play at Barcelona in the road leg of their UEFA Champions League knockout round tie. Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas said so after Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Barca at Stamford Bridge. The Blues didn’t play all too aggressive in their home leg, but still looked really good, definitely suffering some hard luck as Willian hit the post twice.
Eden Hazard played very well on Tuesday, even though he was out of position as a false nine. Hazard said that although he’s willing to play wherever the manager places him, he’s best suited to be out wide.
So what will Antonio Conte do with his Chelsea side at the Camp Nou? Pro Soccer Talk asked the Blues boss his thoughts about Hazard’s performance as a false number nine.
“I think our three strikers played very well, a fantastic game,” the Italian responded.
“Willian, he played really well against Hull [in the FA Cup] and he scored twice and in the last three games we scored eight times and seven goals we scored with Pedro, Willian and Hazard. I think that they’re working very well. We must be pleased for the game, not for the final result.”
It would have been very risky for Conte to play either of his strikers Tuesday night, as both Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud have not been getting a lot of playing time recently, and haven’t truly been in a real rhythm. In a contest with the magnitude of a UEFA Champions League knockout round tie, playing either of those centre forwards could have backfired.
From what Conte said there it kind of sounds like he’ll stick with a three man attack, placing Hazard in the center, with Willian and Pedro out wide.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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