Cesar Azpilicueta says Chelsea cannot afford another defeat in fight for Champions League qualification

Costly | Chelsea star says team cannot afford another defeat
Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
Simon Johnson5 March 2018

Cesar Azpilicueta admits Chelsea cannot afford to drop any more points if they are to qualify for the Champions League.

Chelsea slumped to a disappointing 1-0 defeat against Manchester City yesterday and are now five points adrift of a top-four spot.

Antonio Conte’s side have nine matches remaining, including home fixtures against Tottenham and Liverpool, and Azpilicueta believes the players have to win all of them.

He said: “We have lost a lot of games already and we don’t have space to make another error.

“We have to go game by game, try to win all of our fixtures and qualify for the Champions League. We have a massive game against Crystal Palace at home on Saturday and we have to focus on the nine games we have left to get that Champions League spot.”

Chelsea are now in serious danger of missing out on playing in Europe’s premier club competition for the second time in three seasons.

The Blues could repeat what they did in 2012 and maintain their place by lifting this year’s trophy. They play the second leg of their last-16 tie against Barcelona at Camp Nou next week with the score level at 1-1.

With Chelsea losing ground in the League, Conte could opt to rest his best players against Palace so they are fresh for second leg in Spain.

In Pictures | Manchester City vs Chelsea | 04/03/2018

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Azpilicueta, however, believes it would be a mistake to prioritise any game over another at the moment.

“Winning the competition this season is another way back into the Champions League,” he said. “But we have to try to do well in both.

“We know we can’t waste a chance to get the qualification through the Champions League. We have three targets to aim for this season, including the FA Cup, and we need to go for all of them.”

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