Carlo Ancelotti admits pressure is on after Inter Milan loss
Carlo Ancelotti admits his position as Chelsea manager under pressure after Champions League exit to Inter Milan
Wednesday, 17, Mar 2010 01:36
By Matthew Champion.
Carlo Ancelotti has admitted his position as Chelsea manager is under pressure after losing his personal duel with Jose Mourinho in last night's Champions League defeat to Inter Milan.
Mourinho, returning to Stamford Bridge for the first time as an opposition manager since leaving the club in 2007, saw his side win 1-0 on the night through a Samuel Eto'o goal and 3-1 on aggregate to reach the quarter-finals.
Ancelotti, who signed a three-year contract in the summer on the premise he would win the Champions League in that time - something that eluded Jose Mourinho while at Chelsea - conceded after the match that Inter were the better team and deserved to go through.
Despite Chelsea being second in the Premier League and in the semi-finals of the FA Cup his own position is coming under pressure after the Blues lost two out of their last four home games.
"My regret is we didn't play as well as we did in the first leg. But I've worked for a long time in this environment and I know exactly what expectations are," the Italian, who won the Champions League once as a player and twice as a manager, said.
"It's normal that a manager is going to come under pressure if he loses a few matches."
Ancelotti added that his players had to use last night's defeat to spur them on to silverware over the rest of the season.
"Now we have two important competitions we want to win," he said. "We'll have more pressure on the next few games, but we must be strong and have good control of our emotions.
"Maybe this defeat could be a very good motivation for the next few games. We have to be strong after this defeat.
"We have to have a new motivation, a good motivation, for the future."