• Premier League

Benitez calls for greater concentration

ESPN staff
December 13, 2012
Chelsea won, but manager Rafa Benitez still had a warning for his players © Getty Images
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Rafa Benitez urged Chelsea to keep improving after they booked their place in the final of the Club World Cup with a 3-1 win over Monterrey in Yokohama.

The interim Blues boss saw his side chalk up their third win a row following the Champions League victory over Nordsjaelland and the Premier League win at Sunderland.

He praised the efforts of his players, who he said had been suffering the effects of jetlag, but told them to cut out the sort of lapses that enabled Monterrey to pull a late goal back.

"When I talk about a winning mentality, always I talk about little details making the difference," the former Liverpool manager said. "The team has to think about winning, winning in style and not conceding because the goalkeeper likes clean sheets. They have to keep their concentration right to the end of the 90 minutes.''

Chelsea will face Corinthians in the final, and Benitez told his players they needed to be more clinical at both ends of the pitch in order to lift the trophy.

"You have to take your chances,'' Benitez said. "Now the team knows what we want to do. They have more confidence and are enjoying their football a bit. We still need more time to keep improving.''

Juan Mata, who scored the opening goal against Monterrey - his 11th strike of the season - praised the Blues fans who had travelled to Japan to watch their team.

A Fernando Torres strike and a Darvin Chavez own goal completed the scoring for the Londoners, and Mata said he hoped the final would be a "football party".

He told BBC Sport: "For us it is a very important tournament. We want to win this trophy, to be world champions, and on Sunday we will try our best to win.

"I'm very happy with my goal. We have confidence, but we know that Corinthians are a really good team, one of the best in South America.

"They have a lot of supporters here with them but we have our supporters as well. It will be a football party and hopefully we will win."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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