Maurizio Sarri hopes to see more tears from Alvaro Morata after Chelsea striker nets winner

Matt McGeehan 10:44 05/10/2018
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  • Maurizio Sarri wants to see tears from Alvaro Morata after the striker’s winner in Chelsea‘s 1-0 Europa League victory over Hungarian champions Vidi on Thursday night.

    Morata missed a host of chances in the opening Group L win at PAOK in Greece two weeks ago and spurned a glorious opportunity in the first half at Stamford Bridge.

    Sarri praised an improved all-round display from the 25-year-old, recalled into the Spain squad earlier on Thursday, which was capped by the winner 20 minutes from time and an emotional celebration.

    “If after a goal he wants to cry, I hope to see him cry very often,” the Chelsea head coach said.

    “It’s very important for him to score. I think it’s very important for him to play a very good match. He played a very good match.

    “It’s very important for him to play for the team, like this evening. I think Alvaro can restart from this performance.”

    It was just Morata’s second goal of the season – his first was in August’s Premier League defeat of Arsenal – and Sarri reiterated the striker’s importance to the team.

    “At the moment we have Alvaro and (Olivier) Giroud, but we have to play every three days for a long time, I think, I hope,” Sarri added.

    “And so he’s a very important player for us, for our season.”

    Chelsea were wasteful in front of goal for a second successive Europa League game, but Sarri was more concerned by the chances presented to Vidi.

    He added: “We have created a lot of goal opportunities but we have conceded two, three opportunities to the opponents.

    “I am not worried if we don’t score for 45 minutes. I was not happy, but I think it can happen. I was worried about the fact that we have conceded three goal opportunities to the opponent, for our mistakes.”

    For Vidi it was a second loss, after an opening defeat to Chelsea’s next opponents BATE Borisov of Belarus.

    Vidi boss Marko Nikolic had “mixed feelings”, expressing pride at his side’s performance but frustration at a failure to upset the Blues.

    Nikolic said: “I have mixed feelings. I tried to introduce our team (at the pre-match media conference) that we are a warrior team, that we would try to compete here against Chelsea.

    “I want to congratulate my players and say they played a very good match.

    “We missed too many chances in a match like this, an away match against Chelsea.”

    Gary Cahill was fortunate not to concede a first-half foul and a potential red card for a challenge on the edge of the Chelsea area.

    “It was a questionable decision for sure,” Nikolic said.

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