Maurizio
Sarri says Chelsea "played their football" as they secured their first away
win of 2019 with a 2-1 Europa League last-32 first-leg victory in Malmo.
Sarri wanted a reaction from his side after they were beaten 6-0 by
Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday and said in previous weeks
Chelsea were "not playing their football", inferring his style of play was
either not being listened to or used effectively
The result puts Chelsea ahead in the last-32 tie - with the second leg next
Thursday at Stamford Bridge - and Sarri was generally happy with the
evening's work.
He said: "Today, we played our football. We need to move the ball more
forward and back. In the last period, we had a problem about up and down -
4-0, 5-0, 6-0 - we needed to have continuity and consistency.
"We need to have the right application. If you have a bad mental application
in England you can lose three or four matches. We need to have consistency.
It is not easy, but we have to try.
"I am happy because we played in a good level of confidence. It wasn't easy
after the last match. We moved inside our box, we played very well. We
risked only on set pieces. We could score more I think, but we conceded a
goal on a mistake.
"The level of application was good, we made a material mistake. I think we
could win better. We had three or four goal opportunities. We could kill the
match. It wasn't easy to have this confidence."
Malmo are in the knockout rounds of the Europa League for the first time and
there was a party feel at the Swedbank Stadion, which Sarri likened to his
former club, Napoli.
He added: "The atmosphere was like a little Naples. They are usually 50,000,
it was wonderful. They are a physical team and you have to gain the
qualification.
"We have to play and they are very compact. They didn't surprise us, I knew
them well. I saw their Europa League matches and in their pre-season."
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