Chelsea manager Antonio Conte on Friday welcomed his selection headache ahead of a vital few weeks for the English champions after his much-changed side thrashed Hull City 4-0 to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals.
Willian was the star of the show with two fabulous strikes from outside the penalty area, while Pedro and Olivier Giroud with his first for the club also struck as all four goals came in the first half.
Conte had left Thibaut Courtois, Cesar Azpilicueta, N’Golo Kante and Eden Hazard out of his squad before Barcelona’s visit to Stamford Bridge for the first leg of their UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie on Tuesday.
Photo: AFP
“Before an important game, against Barcelona, tonight I go to my house with many doubts in my mind, which is the best starting XI to start the game against Barcelona, but it’s right to be so. We must take the right time to make the best decision to pick the best XI to start that game,” Conte said.
In between the two legs against the Catalan giants, Chelsea travel to Manchester United and Manchester City on English Premier League duty as they battle for a place in the top four.
However, Conte believes victory, allied to a 3-0 win over West Bromwich Albion on Monday, has restored the confidence needed to beat Barca to a Chelsea side that was reeling after back-to-back defeats against AFC Bournemouth and Watford less than two weeks ago.
“We are talking about a massive game, but now we must be confident,” the Italian said. “I consider Barcelona one of the best teams in the world. In one side, you must be a bit sad to play against them, but on the other hand, you must be excited. You have to try and compete with them at this level. It won’t be easy, for sure, but we must have the right confidence and then we’ll see what happens.”
Willian did more than most to try and force his way into Conte’s side for Tuesday.
The Brazilian scored from long-range off both feet and saw another effort come back of the post two minutes from time.
“The hat-trick was almost there, I tried, but the most important thing was the win,” Willian said. “After a difficult moment, we are back to winning games. When you are winning games the confidence goes high. Now we have to carry on.”
A perfect night for Chelsea was rounded off by Giroud bagging his first goal for the club following his deadline day move from Arsenal last month.
“I was waiting for it. I had a couple of chances in previous games. It was important for me to score my first goal. It’s relieved me a little bit,” Giroud said. “We can see the team had a good team cohesion. It was important to bounce back after some disappointing results.”
Conte was forced to field a side without a natural striker for the defeats against Bournemouth and Watford, but now has competition for places up front as Alvaro Morata continued his comeback from a back injury in the final 20 minutes.
Elsewhere, Leicester City joined Chelsea in the last eight as Riyad Mahrez provided the spark for the Foxes on his return to the starting lineup.
The Algerian’s only appearance in Leicester’s previous three outings came as a late substitute in a 5-1 drubbing at Manchester City last weekend following his self-imposed exile from training after Leicester rejected Manchester City’s advances for the winger last month.
However, he showed why the runaway Premier League leaders were interested with a teasing cross for Jamie Vardy to head home the only goal in a 1-0 win over Sheffield United.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but