Chelsea Manger, Antonio Conte says many teams that qualified for Champions League round of 16 are already praying to avoid being drawn against the Blues. He stated this on Tuesday night after his side played 1-1 against Atletico Madrid at Stanford Bridge. Sky Sports reports that the result from Tuesday's encounter means Conte's side have missed out on a favourable seed in Monday's last 16 draw.
Consequently, if Liverpool beat Spartak Moscow on Wednesday night at Anfield, Chelsea's possible opponents will be restricted to Barcelona, PSG and Besiktas, but the Italian is adamant none of those sides will want to face his.
"When you play this competition, then you go through, you must be ready to face the best teams; in this case we know we could play against Barcelona, PSG or Besiktas. We must be ready, because this is the best tournament and for this, if we want to go through or be a protagonist in this tournament you must be ready to face every team.
I think our opponent would not be happy to play against us. I remember during the European Championship with the national team [Italy, 2016], we finished first in our group and then played against Spain, then Germany, and then if we beat Germany we'd have to play against France. Sometimes it's not so important.
To reach the next round we must be happy with this, and after a performance like this I think the coach must be happy."
On the missed opportunities to sink Atletico Madrid, the Italian said the most important thing was to qualify for the next round.
"I think the goalkeeper was the best player, and I think in some circumstances we should be more accurate," he added.
"When you play this type of game, the details are important, the details make the final result. Maybe in our best moment we went 1-0 down.
"But we tried to draw and then to win, but for this reason we must be pleased for our group, it was a really tough group. In the past, Atletico reached twice the Champions League final, and it means our group was very tough."
