Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has hit out at the scheduling ahead of the Conference League final with Real Betis.
The Blues face a pivotal two final games of the season as they bid to qualify for the 2025-26 Champions League and win a European trophy.
After Sunday’s Premier League fixture against rivals Nottingham Forest at the City Ground, Chelsea make the trip to Poland to face Betis in the continental showpiece.
While the West Londoners are arguably marginal favourites to secure at least one of their targets for the campaign, Maresca has been left unhappy with the schedule that has been put together.
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What is the issue?
As is the case every season, the final Premier League matchday of the season sees all 10 matches kick off at the same time, Chelsea taking to the pitch at 4pm on Sunday afternoon.
That provides them with just over 72 hours before they start Wednesday’s final against Betis, who have been allowed to play their next game versus Valencia on Friday night as opposed to the weekend.
Speaking at Tuesday’s media day ahead of the game with Betis, Maresca acknowledged that he felt that the La Liga outfit had been handed an unfair advantage.
The Italian said, as quoted by football.london: “I’m not happy, 100%. You cannot allow a team 48 hours more than the other team when you play European competition final.
“So you think you should be allowed to play on Friday? Or they play Sunday like us.”
Rather than with the Premier League, Maresca’s issue is seemingly with La Liga, or UEFA not possessing the power to enforce that both teams play their respective matches before the final at the same time.
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Selection dilemma
Maresca revealed at the media briefing that second-choice goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen would start the final, but he did not give any indication with regards to the remainder of his first XI.
With the showdown with Forest taking priority, much will depend on how Chelsea’s first XI comes out of that fixture.
Although Maresca has tended to rotate for the Conference League, he will almost certainly take a different approach if Chelsea do not finish in the top six of the Premier League table, which would guarantee a Europa League spot.
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