Enzo Maresca insists Chelsea will be BACK if they win the Conference League

Chelsea are favourites to win the UEFA Conference League this season as they look to add yet another European trophy to their collection – which would be their first piece of silverware under Enzo Maresca

Enzo Maresca wants to complete the full set of European trophies by winning the Conference League and announce: “Chelsea are back.” The Blues are within touching distance of their sixth European final since 2008, and Maresca is keen to make a “statement” by landing the only pot to avoid them so far.

Chelsea have been the biggest club in the Conference League since they set off on the road to the final in Wroclaw 13 games ago last August. And they could not have had an easier ride if they had been carried across the continent on sedan chairs.

Europe’s third-ranked competition is a far cry from Champions League glory in 2012 and 2021, but West Ham didn’t turn up their noses at the chance to win it two years ago – and Maresca is not devaluing it, either.

He said: “It’s important to win this competition , because we would be the only club in Europe to win all of them and it’s important to start to build a winning mentality with this club.

“For me, winning a Conference League trophy this season is a statement where you can say ‘Chelsea is back’, because you win a trophy. If Real Madrid or different clubs didn’t play the Conference League (this season), it’s because the Conference League is not the level they were at. If we play in the Conference League, it’s because that’s where we are.

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“If you play in the Conference League, you cannot win the Champions League or the Europa League. The only trophy you can win is the Conference League. So we are going to try our best tomorrow to reach the final and then to reach the trophy. From there, it’s a good starting point to win games and trophies.”

If Chelsea go on to win their first trophy, at home or abroad, since 2021, they would become the first club to win five different pots in Europe: Champions League (twice), Europa League (twice), the Cup Winners Cup (twice) and the UEFA Super Cup.

Maresca said: “We want this club winning trophies. In this moment we are in the Conference so we have to try to win the trophy in the competition that we are in.

“It’s important for me personally but it’s much more important for the club, for the fans. We said many times that it’s the only trophy that Chelsea didn’t win in the past and Chelsea can become the first club to win all the European competitions.”

After four consecutive wins, Maresca will not accept a throwback to their slapdash standards in both boxes at home to Legia Warsaw in the quarter-finals.

Like Thursday’s semi-final opponents Djurgarden, they took what should have been an impregnable three-goal advantage into the second leg.

He warned: “Even if the first leg was 0-3, the second game at home was not good enough. It’s not the standards that we require from the players. I try to convince the players that first of all, day-by-day you have to build a winning mentality, even try to win small-sided games. Hopefully in the future we can be in different competitions but at the moment this is the reality.”

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