Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca urged not to heap expectation onto 18-year-old striker Marc Guiu after his first-half hat-trick helped seal a 5-1 demolition of Shamrock Rovers in the Conference League.
The former Barcelona academy graduate is now the leading scorer in the competition after he helped his side round off the league phase with a perfect record ahead of a three-month hiatus before the last 16.
He was one of three teenage starters at Stamford Bridge with winger Tyrique George and defender Josh Acheampong, who signed a new contract until 2029 on Wednesday, also impressing.
With senior internationals Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku ahead of him in the pecking order, Guiu is likely to have to wait for regular playing time in the Premier League.
“With Marc the problem is sometimes probably we forget his age,” said Maresca. “He’s the same age as Josh Acheampong, Ty (George), born in 06. He’s already scored six goals in this competition, and since we started he’s working well.
“He knows that with Nicolas and Christo there it’s not easy for him but it’s important he continues to work in the right way.”
Guiu was the star of the first half as Chelsea’s second string blew the League of Ireland side away.
His first two goals came from calamitous errors in defence by Shamrock, first when defender Darragh Burns sold his goalkeeper short and allowed Guiu to head into an empty net, then Daniel Cleary suffered a similar lapse to give the Spain under-21 international his second.
In between, Shamrock had levelled via midfielder Markus Poom who drilled past Filip Jorgensen via a deflection, but once Chelsea had retaken the lead there only ever looked one winner.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall made it 3-1 slotting his second Chelsea goal before Guiu headed his third from Noni Madueke’s pinpoint cross.
Marc Cucurella scored his second in as many matches to complete the rout and leave Chelsea with a perfect record at the end of the league phase.
“Once again they showed how serious and professional they are in this kind of game,” said Maresca. “Sometimes it’s easy to drop but they know they are not allowed to drop.
“It’s been a good chance for the young players so we’re very happy.”
Maresca said he was undecided whether Cole Palmer, Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana would be included in his European squad for the knockout stages after they were not registered for the league phase.
“It depends on the January transfer window, if players are going to leave or arrive, so I don’t have any idea,” he said.
Shamrock boss Stephen Bradley, whose side progressed to the play-off round in February despite suffering their first defeat of the season in Europe, was left to rue mistakes that led to Chelsea’s goals.
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“You know when you come to places like this you’ve got to be faultless,” he said. “You can’t give them goals like we gave them in the first half. Against this level, the slightest mistake you get punished.
“We knew tonight was going to be difficult, we had to be at our very best. You can’t give away silly goals at key moments, but we’re not going to play against this level a lot.
“We’d have taken 11 points and the play-offs before the competition started.”
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
