Barcelona’s
visit to Chelsea today gives Antonio Conte the perfect opportunity to
reaffirm his stature as one of Europe’s greatest coaches.
“To play
against Barcelona is a great challenge for us,” Conte said after easing
the pressure on his job with back-to-back home wins over West Brom and
Hull in the past week.
“We must be excited to play this type of game,
especially against this team. I consider Barcelona one of the best
teams in the world.”
Conte also considers himself one of the best
coaches in the world, referring to himself despite a recent 4-1 drubbing
at Watford as “a winner.”
He does so with some justification. In a
glittering coaching career, Conte made Juventus title winners again with
three consecutive Serie A titles after a five-year drought.
He also
surpassed expectations by leading an Italy side short on star names to
the quarter-finals of Euro 2016, and delivered the Premier League in his
debut season at Chelsea.
However, a second season slump at the
Bridge and his fractious relationship with the club’s hierarchy means
most believe the Italian won’t last at Chelsea beyond the end of the
season at the latest.
The Premier League champions have recovered
from a poor run of form, winning consecutive matches over West Bromwich
Albion in the league and Hull City in the FA Cup, but Conte is not
getting carried away.
“On one hand you know this team is one of the
best in the world - maybe they are favourites to win this competition,”
Conte told British media.
“On the other hand we must be excited
because we have a great opportunity to play a massive game against a
really strong team and to show which is our level.
“... We have to try to have the perfect game, the perfect game to try to make the best decisions.
“For
this type of team... they have fantastic characteristics with the ball.
But they can have weaknesses without the ball and we have to try and
exploit this.”
Barcelona’s star forward Lionel Messi has never scored
in eight matches against Chelsea and Conte is eager for his team to
maintain that record.
Chelsea last defeated the Spanish side in 2012
as the London outfit marched to their first Champions League title, and
midfielder Cesc Fabregas, who moved to Stamford Bridge from Barcelona in
2014, is confident that Conte’s side can repeat the feat.
“They try to put the first pressure very, very high – (they) always work towards the ball,” Fabregas said.
“If we can (get) past this first phase of their pressure, then we have the content to do that, and not put ourselves under
too much pressure, then I think we can hurt them because they will leave a lot of spaces at the back.
“Hopefully we can give a good image of what we can do and do a good performance.”
Whether
it is to convince Roman Abramovich and close aid Marina Granovskaia he
should remain in charge next season or to attract the attention of
Europe’s other giants who may be looking for a coach come the summer,
Conte needs Champions League nights to remember.
His two years in the
competition at Juventus ended in a 4-0 quarter-final aggregate
thrashing from Bayern Munich and an embarrassing group stage exit behind
Galatasaray.
Conte complained then it was impossible for Italian sides to compete at the latter stages of the Champions League.
It
didn’t help his case then that his successor Massimiliano Allegri then
led Juve to two Champions League finals in three seasons.
Conte’s money complaints
There
have been similarities between Conte’s final days at Juventus and many
of his public outbursts against the Chelsea ownership this season over
his lack of input over recruitment and how much is spent.
“I think
I’m a bit of a disaster to convince the club to buy the players,” Conte
said last week. “I have to speak more with the managers who are very,
very good to persuade their clubs to spend money and buy top players.”
Conte may then welcome his meeting with the more softly-spoken Ernesto Valverde this week.
In
Valverde’s eight-month spell in charge, Barca have smashed their club
record transfer fee twice for Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho.
Yet,
it is in a very different way that Conte may be able to learn from
Valverde as neither Dembele or Coutinho have made much impact on Barca
opening up a seven-point La Liga lead and booking their place in the
Copa del Rey final.
Instead, Valverde has made the best of what he
inherited to turn Barca from the depths of a pre-season crisis into
potential treble winners.
Neymar’s decision to walk out on the club
for a world record 222 million euros to Paris Saint-Germain was a huge
loss that Valverde has used as an opportunity to reconstruct a more
solid side that maintains the firepower of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez
in attack.
A change from Barca’s traditional 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2 has
seen them concede just once in their six Champions League games to date,
and 11 times in 24 La Liga outings.
Meanwhile, the space left unoccupied by Neymar has unleashed left-back Jordi Alba as an attacking threat.
Alba
was on target as Barca equalled a club record by avoiding defeat for a
31st straight La Liga game in a 2-0 win at Eibar on Saturday.
Most of all, Valverde’s calm has restored stability to a club that badly needed a steady hand after a tumultuous summer.
That
may be the lesson Conte and Chelsea can learn from most of all before
careering towards another messy divorce at the end of the season.
Chelsea’s Italian head coach Antonio Conte attends a team training session at Chelsea’s Cobham training facility in Stoke D’Abernon, southwest of London yesterday, on the eve of their UEFA Champions League round of 16 match against Barcelona. (AFP)