Enzo Maresca reveals Chelsea 'concern' before Conference League semi-final | OneFootball

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca admitted that he is "a little bit worried" about the damaging impact Djurgarden's artificial pitch could have on his players in Thursday's Conference League semi-final.

The Blues travel to Sweden to face a side currently sitting 11th in the Swedish top flight. Maresca's side have been largely imperious in Europe's third-tier competition this season, romping through nine consecutive victories before surprisingly losing to Legia Warsaw in the quarter-final second leg.

While he acknowledged the danger of slipping into complacency again, Maresca's chief worry was the artificial pitch. "For sure it can be a concern," the under-pressure Chelsea boss admitted. "I'm a little bit worried about that. But we are not in a moment where we can say we decide to save players for Sunday. This is a semi-final, it's a European competition and we want to be in the final.

"It's completely different [playing on an artificial pitch]. I know that in the last weeks even some of their players were complaining about the pitch. They play every week, so for us it's a different one.

"But there are no excuses, no reasons why we are not going to compete tomorrow and the second game at all."

Enzo Maresca's Chelsea are the favourites to win the Conference League / CAISA RASMUSSEN/GettyImages

Djurgarden manager Jani Honkavaara isn't a fan of the "horrible" pitch either. "It's really tough for both us and our opponents. We get nothing extra from it," he sighed in April. Norwegian winger Tokmac Nguen added: "The ball just slides away from your foot all the time. In deciding situations when you have decided what to do suddenly the ball has moved for no reason. We have told the club that something has to be done."

The club's striker August Priske bluntly called it a "s****y pitch" after the Conference League quarter-finals.

Chelsea's Pedro Neto struck a more upbeat tone: "To be honest, when I was younger in Portugal I used to play on these pitches. I even played on the sand sometimes! Of course I haven't played on one in a long time, but we will train on it tonight and be prepared for tomorrow."