‘Anything Can Happen’ – Maresca’s FA Cup Preview
The Foxes travel to the capital on Sunday, meeting Premier League opposition for a second successive round of the competition having seen off AFC Bournemouth in round five.
Now up against eight-time FA Cup winners Chelsea, it will be the toughest encounter of a cup run which started with victories over fellow Sky Bet Championship sides Millwall and Birmingham City, as Maresca discussed on Friday…
‘A fantastic competition’
City’s Manager chose to reflect on the campaign as a whole, rather than just this competition, with a clear target still in mind as far as the league is concerned. This weekend will not affect that aim, though it would be a significant achievement to reach the final four as a second-tier outfit.
“For me, it’s more [important] to reach the semi-final and then being at Wembley is an extra,” he commented in his pre-match press conference. “But I’m not thinking or paying attention to that because it’s a fantastic competition and if we can win on Sunday, we can go to the semi-final, which would be a good thing.
“For sure, I’m proud, not only because of the FA Cup, but for all the season. Our path and our journey until today has been perfect. We are in the right direction. It’s not normal winning all the games, which for part of the season we were doing.
“Now it’s just a matter of finishing in the right way in the league and trying to enjoy Sunday. If we win, we can probably maintain the momentum, but even with a different result, I don’t think that the Chelsea game is going to dictate the rest of the season.
“It’s a game that if we win, we are all happy. In case we don’t, we’ll be upset for a few days and then we have the international break to charge and go again for the rest of the season.”
The magic of the cup
Leicester’s approach will not waver despite the level of opposition they are facing at Stamford Bridge in Sunday’s 12:45pm GMT kick-off, Maresca confirmed, having already tackled some significant tests in the season so far.
The 44-year-old explained: “When it’s one game, anything can happen because any moment of the game, any goal or red card, can change the dynamic. The most important thing is to be there for 90-95 minutes or like what happened against Bournemouth, 120 minutes.
“But you need to be focused, pay attention throughout and then the game dictates the situation a little bit. Fortunately, this year we played at Anfield, we played Bournemouth away, now we’re going to play Chelsea away.
“The key will be exactly the same, as I always repeat, go there and show ourselves and try to play our football.”
‘Every game is different’
Offering a word on Mauricio Pochettino’s side, Maresca has no doubts over their quality, despite a difficult season for the west Londoners, who overcame Leeds United late on in the previous round.
“They are a fantastic team with fantastic players,” the Italian voiced. “They are in a moment that they are changing things, a new manager at the start of the season. We’ve said many times, when you change manager, the style requires time.
“Sometimes you can be a little bit more lucky or unlucky but, for sure, Chelsea will very soon be one of the best clubs in England again because their manager is fantastic and the players are too.
“Every game is different. I watched the Leeds game and many games that they played. We like the pressure, but the pressure is for them because they are Chelsea. But the pressure is also for us because we’re going there to try and win the game. It’s a different kind of pressure. We enjoy this kind of game and we’ll see what happens.”
Potential changes
A rare opportunity for rest and recovery is on the horizon following this weekend’s encounter, with the international break to commence before Championship football returns for the Foxes.
Enzo added: “It’s very important because we’ve already played many games. This year, it’s a bit different from the rest of the previous seasons in the Championship. To get promoted you probably need around 100 points. There isn’t any other league in the world that you need that.
“But all the three teams who were relegated last year plus Ipswich, they are fighting. We’ve already played 43 games and now the international break will be fantastic to recover energy. And then from Bristol City to the last game, we have nine games in one month, which will be very busy.
“We have to play one more game but our focus will be on the Chelsea game. We also made many changes against Liverpool away. We lost that game but we won that game at Bournemouth.
“We try to make changes every game in the cup and we’ll see for this weekend. After Chelsea, we don’t have a league game so probably we can think in a different way but we still have a session and then we’ll decide.”