Tuchel proud of Chelsea’s mental and physical efforts to win UEFA Super Cup

Another game, another trophy. Chelsea have two in our last two competitive matches, and there was no doubt that tonight’s Super Cup was indeed being treated as a competitive outing, rather than just a glorified friendly or the European version of the Community Shield. . With our opponents, Villarreal thinking along, it made for 120 entertaining, emotional and dramatic minutes in Belfast – which we could pay the price for later, but for which we now have another European trophy to show.

Head coach Thomas Tuchel was certainly proud of his players afterwards, praising their physical and especially mental effort and strength, especially after Villarreal leveled things in the second half once our initial momentum wore off.

“Physically, it was the worst thing that could happen to us, playing extra time. Mentally, it was the best thing to do.

“[We decided to] use this match to win it and nothing else. We went with the team that played against Arsenal and Tottenham to be in the best possible shape. Are we at 100% of our capacity? Absolutely not. But we are ready to play football matches at a certain level. We must have suffered because you saw that after 35 minutes it was getting hard for us [but] I was very impressed with our reaction after 75 minutes as we were in full control of the game again. We played a very good game until the 120th minute.

“So there were a lot of good things. Physically, we abused players who weren’t ready to play 120 minutes. We only have two days until the next game against Crystal Palace so that doesn’t help us. But that’s the schedule. We have come with a lot of players who haven’t even played a friendly game so far. This is the situation and it doesn’t help anyone if we say we are not ready. We have to adapt, be as ready as possible in our state of mind and do our best on Saturday. “

-Thomas Tuchel; source: Football.London

Ready or not, here is the season. Fortunately, we have a strong squad precisely for this season. No room for excuses, just dedication, commitment and a winning attitude. We had a big test today; here is the next one in a few days.

Photo of Chris Lee – Chelsea FC / Chelsea FC via Getty Images