Enzo Maresca believes successful Wednesday’s Convention League closing would affirm Chelsea’s standing as an necessary membership on the European stage once more.
Having sealed Champions League qualification by beating Nottingham Forest 1-0 on the ultimate day of the Premier League season, Chelsea have an opportunity to cap Maresca’s debut marketing campaign with silverware.
The Blues might turn into the primary staff in historical past to win 4 totally different main UEFA tournaments, excluding the Tremendous Cup.
Chelsea have gained the Cup Winners’ Cup (in 1971 and 1998), the Champions League (2012, 2021) and the Europa League (2013, 2019) on two events every.
And whereas they have been put in as overwhelming favourites to carry the Convention League trophy in the beginning of the season, Maresca believes a win could be a big achievement.
“The message over the past 48 hours has been that we did one thing necessary, but when we need to affirm that we have gotten an necessary membership once more, we have to present the will to win the sport and the trophy,” he informed reporters on Tuesday.
“So it’s job executed within the Premier League, unbelievable, and we’re completely satisfied. However tomorrow is a unique sport, a closing, and we need to win at any value.
“Daily we’ve got one thing to show, little doubt. What we’ve got executed is finished. Now we’ve got to show ourselves once more tomorrow.
“We’ve got performed many video games this season on this competitors, now we’ve got only one extra.”
Together with Maresca, every of the final seven Chelsea managers to take cost of a significant European closing have executed so of their first season on the membership.
They have been Gianluca Vialli (who gained the 1997-98 Cup Winners’ Cup), Avram Grant (misplaced 2007-08 Champions League), Roberto Di Matteo (gained 2011-12 Champions League), Rafael Benitez (gained 2012-13 Europa League), Maurizio Sarri (gained 2018-19 Europa League) and Thomas Tuchel (gained 2020-21 Champions League).
Maresca’s place has been referred to as into query at varied levels of the season, and the Italian was requested if he nonetheless had one thing to show to the Stamford Bridge devoted.
“For certain, for me personally, however the message to the gamers is strictly the identical,” he responded. “Daily is an opportunity to enhance, and we need to compete for titles.”
A European closing awaits… pic.twitter.com/Wz4reGZ9en
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) Might 27, 2025
Chelsea may have striker Nicolas Jackson again for Wednesday’s closing, with the Senegal worldwide lacking their closing two video games of the home season via suspension, following a purple card in a 2-0 defeat at Newcastle United.
Maresca expects Jackson to atone for his sending-off in Wroclaw, saying: “Nico is in debt along with his team-mates.
“The reason being that at that second, Newcastle away was, for us, an important sport and he left his team-mates with 10 gamers for one hour.
“For certain, he’s in debt. For certain, he’s man. For certain, he recognised the error.
“He apologised to his team-mates. That is essential. I’m certain that he’s going to do an excellent sport for us.”
