• Chelsea 2-2 Tottenham

Benitez bemoans Chelsea defending

ESPN staff
May 9, 2013
Benitez believes Chelsea had decent chances

Chelsea interim boss Rafael Benitez has bemoaned his players' defending, believing their lack of control hindered their chances of victory in the 2-2 draw with Tottenham.

The Blues led on two occasions at Stamford Bridge, but were pegged back by Spurs goals from Emmanuel Adebayor and Gylfi Sigurdsson.

Chelsea were guilty of backing off too much for Adebayor's opener, while a sloppy pass from David Luiz presented Tottenham with the ball and they clinically took advantage through Sigurdsson to grab the draw.

Benitez, who elected to leave John Terry on the bench, bemoaned his side's defending but is happy their top-four fate is still in their own hands.

"I think that we had four or five counterattacks to finish the game, and we didn't do it," Benitez told Sky Sports. "[Spurs] were pushing and we had to defend but we had the chances on the counterattack to score the third goal and finish it.

"We could defend both [goals] a little bit better because we are talking about transition defending when we conceded the first goal and with the second it was the same.

"I think [the second] was offside anyway, the position of Adebayor - but we still had to stay more compact and be more aggressive in defence.

"The second half was too open. In the first half we had control of the game, we gave them the opportunities to play on the counterattack and it was a great goal.

"When we were winning the game we had to have more control and all the counterattacks that we had we didn't finish so it makes a big difference.

"I think that we had the chances, not clear chances in front of the keeper but in the counterattack you have to do something more.

"We had the chances to score the third goal, but we didn't do it and as you say credit to Tottenham because they were pushing and attacking."

However, the Spaniard was confident his side have now full control of their top-four destiny.

"We are in the position we said before, we have to win one game to guarantee the top four and we will try to win both to get in the top three."

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