Neestrup: We showed our potential against Chelsea

Jacob Neestrup says the high potential for his F.C. Copenhagen team was on display during Thursday's 1-0 defeat to Chelsea in the UEFA Conference League, in which the Lions commanded play for much of the game but failed to breach the Blues defence.

FCK lost 3-1 over two legs in the last-16 encounter, with both games turning out to be close affairs.

Reflecting on defeat at Stamford Bridge, the head coach said: “We gave it a shot and did what we could, and looking at the two games it could hardly be more even, but Chelsea deserved to win the two games.

“We kept them down to very few chances, both in Parken and tonight, and we had many potentially dangerous situations around their box ourselves.

"But if we are going to beat a team like Chelsea, we have to create more chances and punish them in our strong periods, which we had several of in the first half."

Rodrigo Huescas went closest to scoring for the Lions but Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's strike settled the match for the hosts.

"After they went ahead, we had to gamble more, so it became more open," said Neestrup. "They could have scored more but we were also close in the end.

"But we didn't get exit the competition tonight, we did that with the poor performance in Vienna just before the winter break. We've paid the price for that now, when we ran into the clearly best team in the tournament.

"The autumn was bumpy and tough, with a team that was in a different place than the one that peaked in the Champions League the season before. However, this start of this year – and especially in these two Chelsea games – we have performed at a high international level against a top-four team from the Premier League. It shows that we can set high expectations for the great potential of this team.

"So where we ended 2024 with a poor performance in the Conference League, we now exit the tournament with a good performance. And as I said to the boys after the game, it's now about taking this home to the Superliga and winning the Danish championship, and that starts in less than three days when we go to Viborg."