Chelsea’s Maresca and Neto determined to build on defensive resilience
Chelsea kick-started their Champions League campaign with a 1-0 win over Benfica and former boss Jose Mourinho at Stamford Bridge.
Pedro Neto believes Chelsea’s clean sheet against Benfica was an important one as they beat the Portuguese club 1-0 in the Champions League.
The two sides were separated by Richard Rios’ own goal after 18 minutes, with Neto playing a key role in the build-up.
It was the Blues’ first clean sheet in all competitions since August 30 against Fulham, with Enzo Maresca’s side conceding in each of their five previous matches.
Although Neto conceded there is plenty of room for improvement, the Portugal international insisted the win against Jose Mourinho’s side showed Chelsea are heading in the right direction.
“It's important if we get a clean sheet, it's like we are closer to getting the win,” Neto told TNT Sports. “We have shown what we can do but I think we can do even better.
“We knew the difficulties we had in the first game and we tried to work hard to manage those difficulties and today was the resilience of the team that came through.
“I think we had a very good game. In the end we could have controlled it a bit more with the quality of what we had but in the end we have the three points.
“It's a tough team to face at home, we knew we needed to work hard, we did well.”
Chelsea have ended a run of three straight Champions League defeats, while the Blues remain unbeaten at Stamford Bridge in the group stage/league phase of the competition in 12 games (W8 D4).
Chelsea have also benefited from 14 own goals in the Champions League, with only three sides seeing more (Barcelona 20, Real Madrid 19, Bayern Munich 18).
Maresca was proud of their performance, but, like Neto, is focused on how the Blues can improve moving forward.
"The effort was very good,” said Maresca.
“First half I think we were better compared to the second half in the way we managed the ball and created chances. Second half we dropped.
“In the last two three games we have conceded two, three goals and it's not possible to do that. We need to be better defensively but a clean sheet is nice.”
