Chelsea's
Carabao Cup semi-final second leg with Tottenham is the ideal match to turn
around the club's recent fortunes, according to Cesar Azpilicueta.
Maurizio Sarri's side head into Thursday night's crunch fixture at Stamford
Bridge trailing 1-0 from the first leg, a game dominated by controversies
involving the Video Assistant Referee.
Spurs won the first leg thanks to Harry Kane's first-half penalty, awarded
after the intervention of the VAR, who decided the England striker was
onside before being upended by Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Azpilicueta, however, thinks Chelsea deserved more from a contest they
dominated for large periods, without really creating too many clear-cut
openings though.
"I cannot get into the VAR as I do not control it," he said in an exclusive
interview with Sky Sports. "When you are not used to it in the Premier
League, it is something different, but it went this way and we could not
change it.
"But even when we had this negative feeling in the game with the VAR, the
penalty, the goal, the team played very well from the first minute to the
end.
"We deserved more, but we were not able to score. So, what I retain is the
way we played and the personality to keep playing our football, even when we
were 1-0 down after the defeat in the league as well."
Not only did Chelsea lose the first leg at Wembley, but they were also
beaten in another London derby last weekend when suffering a 2-0 defeat at
Arsenal in the Premier League, a setback that has put the club's top-four
hopes in doubt.
So lacklustre were Chelsea's players at the Emirates, that Sarri even
questioned their motivation after the game.
However, what better opportunity can there be to make amends than a London
derby in front of your own supporters with a place in a final at Wembley at
stake, says Azpilicueta.
"I am looking forward to Thursday's game, I think we have a massive
opportunity to come back again to Wembley," he said. "We were in the FA Cup
final a few months ago, we were in the Community Shield.
"We are Chelsea, so we are used to going to Wembley. And hopefully we can
bring our fans back again and reach another final.
"Thursday is when we have to put all the work on the (training) pitch and to
play in Stamford Bridge against Tottenham in the semi-final of the cup, we
have everything and the best game to turn it around all together and play a
big game."
But it is only the players themselves who can make up for those recent
reverses to Spurs and Arsenal, starting against Mauricio Pochettino's team
on Thursday, says the versatile Spain full back.
"After the game (at the Emirates), we were very frustrated and angry," said
Azpilicueta.
"We did not perform well and we are all together. We were the first to know
that we did not play well, everyone had the same feeling and now it is up to
us to turn it around.
"We have been playing very well and getting results - it is true that in two
big games against Tottenham and Arsenal, from the first few minutes we were
not playing well, and we lost the game in the first few minutes.
"But we are aware of this and we are trying to turn this around on the
training ground and we have an amazing opportunity to do this on Thursday."
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