“I was impressed” – Enzo Maresca mentions three Chelsea youngsters for praise after win | OneFootball

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has mentioned three of his young players for some praise after The Blues beat Astana 3-1 in Europe yesterday.

The game was very strange overall, even the fact that it was a late afternoon kick off time in the UK. But Chelsea also had to make a 7,000 mile round trip to play this game, which is mad for a European tie. Astana are in Kazakhstan, and that was a heck of a long way from home for Maresca and his players.

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Still, they went there and they did the job, and they did it well. It was a massive opportunity for a number of the academy players at the club, three of whom started the game.

Samuel Rak-Sakyi ran things in the middle of the park for Chelsea, looking very comfortable in that deeper role.

Josh Acheampong started the game as anticipated and again, he was very calm and composed at the back alongside Tosin Adarabioyo and Axel Disasi.

And we all know what Tyrique George is all about and he looked like a danger every time he got on the ball wide on the left.

Maresca praises all of them

Rak-Sakyi was great last night

‘It was a solid performance,’ said Maresca. ‘We knew it was quite cold and we tried to adapt quickly. The players did fantastically with the weather conditions, the long journey yesterday, and the pitch was not ideal for us. Overall I’m very happy for the players.

‘I’m also happy for the young players who helped us win the game. I was impressed by all of them. The ones who started, Tyrique [George], Sam [Rak-Sakyi] and Josh [Acheampong] all did very good. So I’m very happy for them and the ones that came on in the second half, I’m pleased.’

Quotes via the Chelsea Website.