Antonio Conte: Chelsea's game against Qarabag is 'most important' of season

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Vaishali Bhardwaj20 November 2017

Antonio Conte believes Chelsea will play their biggest and most important game of the season on Wednesday when the Blues take on Qarabag in the Champions League.

Conte's side can book their place in the last 16 of the competition should they beat the Azerbaijani side in Baku in the 5pm fixture on Wednesday, which would ease the pressure on the Blues ahead of their final Group C game at home to Atletico Madrid on 5 December.

Chelsea thrashed Qarabag 6-0 in the reverse fixture in September, but Gurban Gurbanov's side have since drawn home and away with Atletico and only been narrowly beaten 2-1 at home to Roma.

And Conte believes that the game in Baku will be Chelsea's biggest test of the campaign because of the reward on offer should the west Londoners win.

"We have to play the most important game of the season from the start until now," Conte said.

"If we are able to win against Qarabag, we can go through to the next round of the Champions League and this is very important because this period from now until January is very busy, so it is very important to win the game.

"For sure it won’t be easy because in the last two games they drew twice against Atletico Madrid, and before that they lost the game but Roma were struggling a lot to win against them so it is very important to be focused, to work and to try to win the game."

Such was Chelsea's performance at the Stadio Olimpico that Conte admits his players didn't show the required desire to beat Roma and hopes that the return of several of his previously injured players will result in a different outcome in Baku.

"I must be honest, these players always show great desire and will to fight in every game," Conte said. "Against Roma, together we didn’t show this – me first. I always put myself before the players and I always take the responsibility.

"In Rome we didn’t deserve to finish the first half 2-0 down, but the second half was negative because we didn’t show the desire to come back to try to draw it or win.

"But I think this season, we faced a lot of problems from the start and now we are trying to solve these problems, to recall players, to find the right form for players like, for example, Eden [Hazard] and it is the same for [Alvaro] Morata who is playing his first season in England.

"Then [N'Golo] Kante is recovering good form and we know very well the importance of these players for us. We had a lot of problems and also we are trying to change something in the tactical aspect and to find different solutions, because when you are conceding many goals, it means you have to find a new balance."

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