Ralph Hasenhuttl is expecting a tough test against Chelsea on Saturday when his side plays them at the Saint Mary’s stadium.
Chelsea has lost two matches in a row; first, it was their humiliating 4-1 defeat to Brentford in the Premier League after going one goal up. Things got worse as they lost to Real Madrid on Wednesday in the Champions League.
Speaking ahead of the game, Ralph Hasenhuttl says he expects Chelsea to put up a strong performance and also highlighted that it’s always important and special when they play Chelsea at Saint Mary’s.
What did he say?
When Ralph Hasenhuttl was asked what he made of Chelsea’s loss to Real Madrid, he joked: “That you need a player like Benzema to win against them! This is what we have learned.
“No, I think those who saw the game saw a very, very good Real Madrid side. Surprisingly good, I must say, that they played in this way.
“First half the way they (Chelsea) played is not good enough for the Champions League. Thomas knows this.
“It is interesting that such a team also looked like they were affected by the home loss to Brentford. You could feel it.
“They were not so confident with everything they did.
“It’s a good thing to see that the big teams are struggling sometimes. The bad thing is that this doesn’t happen very often!
“So, as I know them and how they work, he’ll be critical with them and will try to show a reaction.
“I always expect the most difficult opponent, even if they win this game 3-0 and have the next leg on Tuesday against them, I know that Saturday’s game is very important for them also, and a Premier League game for Chelsea is always important against us, especially because they know it’s not easy coming here.
“I think it will be a tough game, tough fight and we will try to make it as tough for them as possible.”
He also said the game is not about Chelsea having lost two matches in a row.
“It doesn’t make any difference. You don’t have to look at the results before, there’s a lot of quality in the team and there’s been a lot of success in the past and it’s normal that sometimes come games that are running a little bit against you.
“But it’s not on us to concentrate too much on Chelsea, we must concentrate on us and what we have done against them in the last games where we did some good stuff against them, to be honest.
“On this stuff, we have to focus, on this stuff we have to concentrate and try to make it even better.
“Because the last game in the cup was a draw and then we lost in a penalty shootout. But you could see that this was a way of playing football that worked against them.”
