‘We struggled a little bit physically’ – Maresca

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca believes “physical conditioning” was the difference between his side and Celtic in their 4-1 defeat.

The Blues had a number of chances throughout the match, with Celtic goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel making some impressive saves to keep them out.

The Scottish Premiership champions, who were playing their fifth pre-season game, were more clinical and pounced on errors in the Chelsea defence, before Christopher Nkunku scored a late consolation goal from the spot.

It was the second pre-season friendly on the Blues’ US Tour and the side look to still be adapting to new head coach Maresca’s style of play.

“On the ball the team was ten times better than we were against Wrexham because we can see the amount of chances we had in the first half and the second half,” the Italian said after the match.

“Off the ball, for sure, we need to improve things. You can see sometimes we confuse when we need to play short and when we need to play a little bit longer but that is part of the process.”

“For me, it is important to realise the difference between us and them [Celtic] in the physical conditioning.

“You can see they had already played four games in pre-season and they are starting their official season very soon. Whereas for us, we struggled a little bit physically.”