Di Matteo takes blame for defeat

Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo has taken responsibility for his team’s 3-0 loss to Juventus on Tuesday.

Goals from Fabio Quagliarella, Arturo Vidal and Sebastian Giovinco sealed what was a convincing win for the Serie A champions in the Champions League clash at Juventus Stadium.

Under-fire Di Matteo, who selected a surprise line-up without a recognised striker, took blame for the loss which extended Chelsea’s winless run in all competitions to three matches.

“I’m responsible for the result. I’m responsible for the performance,” the Italian told reporters.

“It’s a negative evening for us. If anyone has to take the blame, it’s me.”

Fernando Torres and Victor Moses were left on the bench as Eden Hazard, Juan Mata and Oscar took up the attacking positions for a counter-attacking Chelsea.

The trio had their chances and Di Matteo defended his decision to start without a striker in the Group E clash.

“I thought this was the team to beat Juventus. Hazard had the first good chance for us, I thought he played the (lone forward) position well, held the ball up and put some great balls in,” he said.

“I wanted to give problems to Juventus in different ways, not to give them a point of reference. That’s what Hazard did. He moved their three centre-backs around.

“When the result is negative, everything will be questioned. We have to pick ourselves up again.”

Chelsea, who must beat Nordsjaelland on the final match-day to have any chance of progressing, need Shakhtar Donetsk to upset Juventus and Di Matteo refuses to give up hope.

“We have hope because mathematically it’s still possible for us. At a big club like this, if you have a few bad results, you’re going to be under pressure. It’s been the same from day one,” he said.

Juventus caretaker coach Angelo Alessio praised his team and said their unpredictability in attack was a major reason they regularly caused Chelsea problems.

“We were able to ensure a top performance thanks to our effort and we pressed them well,” he said.

“We were also unpredictable which was good because we are often criticised for being too obvious and tonight we varied our play which was good.

“I was really happy with the result and hopefully we can use this to qualify for the next stage.”