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Enzo Maresca said that he had no knowledge of Mykhailo Mudryk, who was provisionally suspended by the Football Association after failing a doping test last December, turning up in Wroclaw before Chelsea’s Uefa Conference League final against Real Betis on Wednesday night.
Mudryk, who has not featured since November, caused a stir when he was spotted in a steak restaurant in the city on Tuesday afternoon. The £88.5m Ukraine international was wearing Chelsea merchandise and posed for photographs with supporters.
Mudryk is eligible to receive a medal from Uefa after the match and is expected to watch the game, although it is not clear if he will do so at Stadion Wroclaw or at an outside venue. It remains to be seen if he will be on the pitch at full time.
There was also no clarity on whether the former Shakhtar Donetsk attacker is staying in the team hotel or if Chelsea paid for his travel. Mudryk arrived in Poland before the rest of Chelsea’s squad.
The 24-year-old’s appearance even caught Maresca by surprise at his pre-match press conference on Tuesday. Asked how pleased he was that the Ukrainian is here, Chelsea’s head coach was visibly confused and initially lost for words. “To be honest, I just … I don’t know, he is here or is coming?” Maresca said. “He is here? I don’t know. I am happy for Mischa to be here.”
Meanwhile, the Real Betis head coach, Manuel Pellegrini, said Manchester United loanee Antony “wants revenge” for the way his Old Trafford career deteriorated before his move to Seville.
Wednesday’s final could be the 25-year-old’s last match for the club he joined on a six-month deal in January, the move bringing to an end a troubled spell in the Premier League.
“I spoke with him before he came to Betis,” said Pellegrini, who has led Betis to their first European final. “He told me that he was not playing because he was not happy. But he has a lot of complaints about what he has done. He wants revenge. I think he did it the way we know he can do it.
“It is not easy for you to pay €100m for a player. Antony is a very good player. I am absolutely sure that this is a huge time for him to continue improving his career.”
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Betis will pose a sterner test than any of Chelsea’s previous European opponents and feature several highly decorated stars including five-time Champions League winner Isco and former Barcelona defender Marc Bartra. “We don’t think that we are David and Goliath,” said Pellegrini, himself a Premier League winner with Manchester City in 2014. “We think that we have exactly the same possibility to win the game.
“We are going to start from the first minute to try to do it. It doesn’t matter how much one team or the other team [spends]. In 90 minutes on the pitch we will have exactly the same chance to win the game.”
PA Media contributed to this report
