Enzo Maresca blasted the officials after Bayern Munich made the most of Jonathan Tah avoiding a red card and gave Chelsea a rough introduction to life back in the Champions League.
Chelsea’s head coach did not hide his anger with the Spanish referee, José Sánchez Martínez, for only booking Tah for a cynical challenge on João Pedro during the first half at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday night. Maresca was insistent that the Bayern defender should have been sent off after bringing João Pedro down during the buildup to Cole Palmer’s goal for Chelsea, who ended up opening the league phase with a 3-1 defeat to the Bundesliga champions.
“It should have been a red card,” Maresca said. “I always said it was a red card when there is no intention to go for the ball just when the intention is to kick another player. Why is it not a red card? The referee said it was not hard or aggressive enough. So to give you a red card, they need to see your blood or they need to see something. If the intention is to go there, it’s a red card. So for me there is not any doubt.”
Maresca was booked for his protests and his frustration increased when Bayern took Tah off at half-time. Vincent Kompany, the Bayern manager, admitted it was because the Germany centre-back was on a yellow card.
Chelsea at least took heart from a spirited display after two years out of the Champions League. However they paid for mistakes at the back. Trevoh Chalobah scored an own goal and errors from Malo Gusto and Moisés Caicedo led to Harry Kane easing Bayern to victory with two goals, including one from the penalty spot.
“I’m happy with the performance, because we knew how difficult it was to come here against this team,” Maresca said. “We knew that it was a very tough game but overall I think we competed very well. In the first 20 minutes, we didn’t concede nothing, we created two chances, then we conceded the goal and [it] changed the game.
“I think the players were already aware of the difficulties. You cannot commit mistakes in the way we have done, but I just said to the players, it’s a game that we can learn a lot and build something special from this defeat.”
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Maresca added that there was nothing wrong with Palmer, who appeared to be nursing a groin problem during the closing stages. “I asked him after the game, he said that he’s OK,” the Italian added.
