Barca win thriller to book place in Champions League quarterfinals
FC Barcelona won a thrilling Champions League tie 3-1 at home to Napoli to assure their place in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
Chelsea coach Antonio Conte believes it will be the biggest clash of the season when his boys will face Qarabag in a Champions League match on Wednesday.
“We have to play the most important game of the season from the start until now,” Conte told chelseafc.com ahead of the match that will ensure Chelsea’s progress to the knockout stage of the Champions League.
Chelsea will play in Azerbaijan for the first time. Qarabag have shown impressive grit in their last three Champions League fixtures.
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“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,” he said.
Qarabag managed to draw home and away against Atletico Madrid after a narrow 2-1 defeat against Roma in recent matches.
The Blues’ manager is not intimidated by Qarabag’s improvement as he was quoted saying: “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.”
In their last Champions League fixture, Chelsea suffered a 3-0 defeat against Roma. However, they returned to the winning ways with Saturday’s 4-0 win against West Brom following a 1-0 victory over Manchester United.
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