Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca is hoping that winning the Europa Conference League trophy can be a starting point for future success for the club.
The Blues defeated Real Betis 4-1 on Wednesday to win the Europa Conference League trophy for the first time.
It marked a fulfilling week for Maresca who guided Chelsea to Champions League qualification on Sunday after defeating Nottingham Forest.
The Italian manager is confident that the trophy can be a starting point for the club ahead of the FIFA World Club Cup.
Maresca said: “I’m very proud, and very happy. I know the fans deserve it, they’ve waited for a few years for good moments. The club has invested a lot of money so they’ve been waiting too.
“Hopefully, this can be a starting point and we can begin to create something important.
“The target for next season? We’re going to try again. We’ll enjoy it for a week or so, and then start looking ahead.”
Maresca blamed mental fatigue for the team’s poor start in the final on Wednesday.
He said: “In the first half, we approached the game in the wrong way. I expected it a little bit, because for two days the happiness was a little bit too much after Nottingham Forest.
“You go all season waiting, waiting. We struggled a little bit with that, but the second half was much better.
“The message after Forest was that if we wanted to be an important team, what we’ve done is done and we have to win a final now.
“That was the message, but there’s the happiness, the tiredness. We played on Sunday for a big target, [Betis] played on Friday for nothing. They had 48 hours extra.
“I expected it a little bit, but in the second half we were much better and we were attacking in behind, which we didn’t do before half-time.”
Maresca helped Chelsea to become the first team to win all UEFA competitions after winning the Champions League, Europa League, and the Conference League.
He said: “We won this competition and I said many times that we would try to win the competition that we play in.
“Many times this season, people talked about the Champions League and Europa League, but you cannot win those competitions if you’re in the Conference League. Next season, we are going to play in the Champions league and we will see what happens.”
Chelsea will be back in action at the FIFA World Club Cup in June where they will take on the likes of Leon, Flamengo, and ES Tunis.
The Blues will open their campaign against Leon on June 16 before taking on Flamengo four days later and then ES Tunis on June 25.
