Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas has decided to take the positives from the 3-1 defeat to Napoli in the round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League.
While pressure mounts on the young manager, he remained confident on improvement in his side which suffered a defeat to the Serie A side in the first leg of the fixture. Ezequiel Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani were the goal scorers for Napoli while Juan Mata
scored the lone goal for the Blues.
The Blues managed to get a surprising nine shots on goal, but only managed to score a single goal in a highly open game. Villas-Boas admitted his side were poor when it came to finishing, which had proved to be the difference between the two sides, but that
they had done well otherwise.
Villas-Boas said while speaking to reporters:
“Being more clinical in front of goal was the difference [as] both teams [had] the same amount of opportunities.
It was a very open game for the Champions League, end to end, but Napoli found that efficiency we didn't find.”
Striker Didier Drogba, midfielder Ramires and central defender David Luiz all had brilliant chances to score towards the end of the game but none of them managed to find the back of the net. Meanwhile, skipper John Terry’s absence was felt as the Blues also
struggled in defence.
The centre back partnership of David Luiz and Gary Cahill was not as successful as the Portuguese manager would have hoped. Villas-Boas admitted his side had suffered due to the injury suffered by Terry but felt his side could work towards improvement for
future fixtures, in both the Premier League and the Champions League.
He revealed:
“We have to solve these mistakes at the back. We need this concentration right and this efficiency right, for sure.
At the moment, without John, a very important player for the team, we have suffered a lot of goals recently.
We had improved a lot at the beginning of January, so we have missed John. But we have full belief in these players and we have to continue to work with them to get it right.”