Enzo Maresca has expressed delight following Chelsea’s qualification to the round of 16 of the FIFA Club World Cup.
Chelsea will face Benfica on Saturday after beating Esperance 3-0 thanks to goals from Tosin Adarabioyo, Liam Delap and substitute Tyrique George to seal second place in Group D.
Atlético were knocked out of a tight group including Paris Saint-Germain and Botafogo and Maresca said (via ESPN): “It is important for us because 32 clubs are in this tournament, now 16. There are clubs in the last five or six years, they play Champions League final like Atlético Madrid and they are already in Spain.
“So we need to be proud, we need to be happy. And now, from the [top] 16, the target is to go to the first eight.”
Delap marked an encouraging performance in sweltering conditions at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field with his first goal since joining Chelsea from Ipswich Town for £30million earlier this month.
“We expect the process to be quite quick with Liam and the reason why he is because we know him and he knows us in the way we want to play,” said Maresca.
“For Dário Essugo, for Mamadou [Sarr] or even for Andrey [Santos] who was with just the last pre-season, it is going to be a little bit more complicated because they don’t know the way we want to play exactly.
“But Liam as I said, we know each other very good so the process is quite quick and then it is also because he is a very good player.”
Maresca ruled out making any changes to his squad with competition rules allowing for up to two players to be added ahead of the round of 16.
Wesley Fofana has been training with the group as he bids to return following hamstring surgery in April but Maresca added: “For Wes, he is here because he is trying to be with us, to recover with us but there is no chance he can be involved in the squad. At the moment there is not any plan to bring other players.”
