An outstanding performance by João Felix, author of a double, allowed Chelsea to extend their total of victories in the Conference League with a win this Thursday (1-4) against Panathinaikos, in a match in which the Portuguese attacker vindicated himself against the ‘blues’ coach, the Italian Enzo Maresca.
“It’s not that I’m not doing well during the week, it’s that those who are playing right now are doing very well. João simply has to continue working as he is doing and hopefully we can give him more minutes and opportunities,” Maresca said in the preview of the match.
João Félix, who last Sunday did not play a single minute in the defeat (2-1) of Chelsea at Liverpool’s fieldhas still not started in any of the five league games since he arrived at the London team from Atlético de Madrid last August.
Ownership that the Portuguese attacker has found in the Conference Leaguethe third continental competition, that Maresca has decided to play with the ‘b’ unit, as witnessed by the eleven changes that the Italian coach introduced this Thursday in Athens in relation to the starting eleven that he lined up at Anfield.
A ‘reserve’ team, yes, full of stars with players like the Spanish Marc Cucurella, the Argentine Enzo Fernández, the Ukrainian Mykhailo Mudryk or the Frenchman Christopher Nkunku.
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Although if someone stood out above everyone, it was John Felixwho made it clear that he wants to stop playing during the week in the Conference League and start on the weekends in the English League matches.
A claim that The Portuguese attacker justified it with goals and flashes of talent and at twenty-two minutes he opened the scoring for Chelsea after completing a quick transition that he himself was in charge of initiating.
Ten minutes into the second half, andThe Portuguese definitively put the English team’s victory on track with a shot from the edge of the area that momentarily became 0-3 after hitting a local defender.
Goals to which João Félix added the pass that led to the penalty that allowed Nkunku to make it 0-4 which turned into a mere anecdote the subsequent goal by Uruguayan Facundo Pellistri for Panathinaikos that established the final 1-4 at sixty-nine minutes.
