A REAL LEGEND SPURS ALONSO
<M<IP B@:B# <M<IP >F8C# <M<IP >8D< Marcos’ Euro motivation
MARCOS ALONSO’S late grandfather Marquitos played in five European Cup-winning teams with Real Madrid – more than the present Chelsea squad put together.
And that lack of experience could make all the difference in Wednesday’s Champions League last-16 second-leg clash in Barcelona, according to boss Antonio Conte.
With David Luiz still injured, Gary Cahill is the only survivor of Chelsea’s 2012 final win.
And Conte warned that shortage of know-how will make it hard for his players to do to Barcelona what Juventus did to Tottenham at Wembley last week.
The tie is poised at 1-1 and Conte said: “Don’t forget you are talking about a team with many players that won the Champions League in this Juventus team.
Admire
“We don’t have this experience and you have to build this experience in the years. This team lost a lot of old players with great experience.
“We have a lot of players playing for the first time or the second time in a Champions League game.”
Alonso is reminded of what it takes to win the biggest games every time he sees the five replica European Cups in his grandma’s house.
“It is extra motivation for sure, something to look at and admire and to make me fight for it,” he said.
“He used to say it was easy to play because he was a centre-back and he just used to get the ball and give it to Di Stefano, Gento, Puskas.
“When he used to talk about it, it sounds very easy, but today it is very hard and something amazing to fight for, starting from Wednesday. We showed against Barcelona here what kind of team we are – a good team that can compete against the top teams.
“We are sure of that and have to play another good game on Wednesday.”
As practice for the sort of test Chelsea can expect at the Nou Camp, Saturday’s game was a dead loss until half-time.
Third from bottom Palace were dreadful in the first 45 minutes and boss Roy Hodgson took off Christian Benteke to make way for the return of Wilfried Zaha after injury.
That bucked up Palace, who trailed 2-0 at the break through Willian’s fifth goal in five games and an unlucky own goal by Martin Kelly. Patrick van Aanholt replied against his former club in the 90th minute.
But Hodgson denied that Benteke had been much worse than anyone else.
“There were a lot of players who didn’t give me the sort of commitment and desire, if you like, to win the ball and run around,” he said.
“It would be unfair to put it totally on him. But I believe in the players, I believe that they’ve got a lot of qualities, not just in terms of fighting spirit and determination but as footballers as well.
“They’re going to have to bash us over the head to get us down – we’re not going to surrender in any way.” CHELSEA (3-4-3): Courtois 7; Azpilicueta 7, Christensen 6, Cahill 6; Zappacosta 7, Kante 7, Fabregas 7 (Pedro 88), Alonso 6; WILLIAN 8, Giroud 6 (Morata 72), Hazard 6 (Bakayoko 88). Subs: Caballero, Ampadu, Moses, Emerson. UP NEXT: Barcelona (a), Champions League, Wednesday. CRYSTAL PALACE (4-4-2): Hennessey 7; Wan-Bissaka 7, Kelly 6, TOMKINS 8, Van Aanholt 6; Townsend 5 (Lee 81), Milivojevic 6, McArthur 6, Schlupp 5 (Riedewald 75); Benteke 3 (Zaha 46, 7), Sorloth 4. Subs: Cavalieri, Sakho, Souare, Fosu-Mensah. UP NEXT: Huddersfield (a), Premier League, Saturday. Referee: Anthony Taylor 7. YOUR TURN: Which Belgian scored Palace’s winner when they beat Chelsea 2-1 at Satmford Bridge last season?