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'We deserved to win the game without being lucky'

'We deserved to win the game without being lucky'

BBC News16 hours ago
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca spoke to BBC Sport after the 2-1 win over Palmeiras: "I think in the first half we were in control of the game. We didn't concede nothing."We scored the goal and we could have scored more. Second half, they started better than us and they scored. The game changed a little bit - the dynamic changed."But then in the last 20-25 minutes we were in control again. I think we deserved to win the game without being lucky."Moises [Caicedo] was suspended, Romeo [Lavia], unfortunately, had a small muscle problem and Reece James felt something during the warm-up. We think that it's tightness, so we preferred not to take any risks with him."We decided to start with Andrey [Santos]. We know each other much, much better compared to one year ago. And with a different structure, a different way to play, the players are getting better and better."On semi-final opponents Fluminense: "Until today, I was focused on Palmeiras. From tomorrow, I will start to be focused on Fluminense. I watched some games that they have played and you can see that they are very well organised. They have some very good players. The manager is doing a fantastic job."And again, it will be the same final. The energy from the Brazilian teams in this competition has been high."
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