Andreas Christensen backed by Antonio Conte to be next Chelsea captain despite Barcelona howler
Dane, 21, cost Blues victory against Barcelona on Tuesday when his pass across the backline helped Leo Messi end his duck against club
ANTONIO CONTE has backed Andreas Christensen to become a future Chelsea captain.
The Dane, 21, cost Blues victory against Barcelona on Tuesday when his pass across the backline helped Leo Messi end his duck against them.
But Conte is looking at the bigger picture for Christensen, who is continuing an impressive rise after two seasons on loan in Germany with Borussia Monchengladbach.
The Blues boss said: "I have a lot of trust in Christensen. This player is a player for the present for Chelsea, and for Chelsea's future for 10 or 12 years. He can also become the captain of this team in the future.
"Personally I forgot his mistake. When you are a player, you can make a lot of mistakes in your career.
"If I had to talk about all the mistakes I made in my career, we would have to be here for one day.
"It doesn't matter. Christensen is having a fantastic season and showing great maturity. For me, apart from the mistake, his performance was great, was wonderful."
Barca barely had sight of Blues goal during their Champions League last-16 first-leg draw.
And Conte reckons the display is just the boost his players needed before Sunday's trip to face Manchester United at Old Trafford.
He added: "This performance can bring great confidence.
"But, at the same time, this performance can make you think that if we are ready to work very hard as a team it is very difficult to play against us. That's the great lesson from this game.
"It can happen, that you have a blackout in a few games. We lost two games in different ways. Against Bournemouth we created chances to score but Watford was a really bad game.
"That's the past. We must be focused for United and to prepare in the right way, because they're a very strong team with fantastic players. Always dangerous, because their squad is very strong.
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"There are a lot of players, the squad is big, and fantastic players and this team also is very physical, great physicality. We must pay great attention. When you play against United, you have to know that anything can happen.
"There is the risk of losing the game because, I repeat, you are playing a really strong team. But massive game for us, and we have to do the best we can and put 120%, all our strength, into trying to get three points."