Sports
Chelsea Desperate For Champions League Action
While Chelsea are focused on winning the Premier League, head coach Antonio Conte is desperate to return to the Champions League and make an impact in Europe.
Chelsea are flying high domestically this season as the Londoners look to restore their 10-point lead with victory at West Ham on Monday.
Conte’s men have only lost one of their past 20 Premier League matches – winning 17 – but there is a void at Stamford Bridge after Chelsea finished 10th last term and the Italian boss is determined to fill it.
“For me and for my players we all miss it [the Champions League],” Conte said.
“The Champions League must be an appointment for us every year. The Champions League must be our house, for this reason we are putting our strength into making sure we are playing in the Champions League next season.
“It’s a great competition for the players, the club and the manager and we want to try and stay there, to try and fight to win.”
Antonio Conte told his players to “keep their feet on the ground” after they beat West Ham 2-1 on Monday to take another big step towards the Premier League title.
The Blues lead second-placed Tottenham by 10 points with 11 games left.
Supporters were singing “we’re going to win the league” at London Stadium, but Conte said: “We must think we have to take 26 points. We go step by step.”
Those points would mean a total of 92 – the maximum Spurs can accumulate is 89.
Chelsea are the seventh side to accrue 66-plus points from their first 27 games of a Premier League season, having done it themselves twice before (69 in 2005-06 and 68 in 2004-05). All six previous sides have gone on to win the title.
Italian Conte, in his debut Premier League season, added: “We must think every opponent will want to beat us from now until the end.
“To dream is good, but it’s important to keep our feet on the ground.”
Despite his side recording their 21st league win of the season, Conte said he was disappointed with them conceding against West Ham late in the game.
Eden Hazard finished off a counter-attack in the 25th minute to give Chelsea the lead before Diego Costa made it 2-0 from close range five minutes after the restart.
However, Manuel Lanzini’s stoppage-time strike made it an uneasy final few seconds for the Blues.
“To give away a clean sheet at the end is not good,” Conte said.
“We must improve in this situation – but I’m pleased. We showed great concentration and commitment and will to win.”
West Ham manager Slaven Bilic does not expect their London rivals to slip up in the run-in.
“They look serious. For me they are not going to lose that. I can’t see them being casual,” the former Croatia defender said.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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