Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has said that you need more luck to win the Champions League than you do to win the Premier League.
Conte won the Premier League title with Chelsea last season in his first year at Stamford Bridge but he has never made it past the Champions League quarter-finals stage as a manager despite winning three Serie A titles with Juventus.
Conte won the Champions League as a player with the Italian club in 1996 and he feels that one or two decisions can have a massive impact on a knockout stage tie in comparison to the Premier League where the best team in the division generally wins the title after a 38 game season.
“I think that, in the league, you have 38 games to show you deserve to win the league, to show you are the best during the season,” Conte said when asked about Liverpool’s run to the Champions League final.
“In the Champions League, when you reach the last 16 or quarter-finals or semi-finals, one situation – positive or negative – can change your future in this competition. For this reason, I think that to win the Champions League you must be more lucky.
“You must be good to deserve it, but at the same time you must be lucky. One referee’s decision can settle your future totally. In the league, over 38 games, usually the team who deserves to win it wins it.
“Luck is always important in every competition, but when you have the possibility to play 38 games you can show you are the best. In a little tournament, like the FA Cup or Carabao or Champions League or Europa League, sometimes one decision can move your future. Sometimes you are lucky or you are unlucky.
“But Liverpool deserve to play in this final. They eliminated Manchester City and deserve to play the final.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said that his club’s main target this season was to qualify for the Champions League next season, never mind win the competition in the current campaign.
Liverpool advanced to their first Champions League final in 11 years when they defeated Roma 7-6 on aggregate on Wednesday but Klopp insisted that finishing in the top four in the Premier League and qualifying for the Champions League again next season would be a massive success for the club.
“It would be massive,” said Klopp. “It was actually the main target we had at the start of the season. You want to be champions but it was clear after a few months that would not be possible.