Chelsea will have to quickly come up with answers before the sides meet again at Stamford Bridge on March 7.
Graham Potter admits Chelsea are heading in the right direction despite a 1-0 defeat in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 meeting with Borussia Dortmund.
The West London club managed 21 attempts to the hosts’ 14 and Joao Felix cannoned a first-half effort off the crossbar as Potter’s side still searching for just their second win in 2023 came up empty-handed.
They have won one game in 2023 and the victory came against Crystal Palace. Defeat at Signal Iduna Park means Chelsea will have to quickly come up with answers before the sides meet again at Stamford Bridge on March 7.
Potter, who insisted in the pre-match press conference that he is capable of getting angry, nonetheless chose to see the evening’s glass as half full.
“We have to to better. We were pushing at the time (of the goal) and were the better team so to concede in that manner is what we’re disappointed in, but the players are honest,” Potter said.
“They know they can do better with that. We have to help them, of course, but again we’ll probably focus on the positive which was the performance was another step forward for us.
“Before the game we were looking at Reece (James) and Ruben (Loftus-Cheek) and Ben (Chilwell) and Kalidou (Koulibaly), you know it’s their first and second games for quite some time.
“It isn’t easy to pick up the speed of the Champions League but I still think they did it really well, you’ve still got three new players coming in and again playing against a team that is in a good moment.
“So hopefully I think we will improve and then in three weeks’ time we can take the game at Stamford Bridge.”
Potter also added: “They know the situation that we’re in and they know the challenges that we have but it’s exciting.
“Training as a group has been fantastic so the spirit’s there in the team, it’s just we need a little bit of luck I think and we need to carry on the performance level that we had tonight and we need to try to keep improving. That’s the job.”
See Morre:
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