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Rafael Benitez: 'Europa League triumph will win over fans'

Benitez: 'Europa League triumph will win over fans'
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Rafael Benitez hopes that winning the Europa League will finally win over the Chelsea supporters.

Chelsea interim manager Rafael Benitez is hopeful that he will finally win over the club's supporters should they lift the Europa League trophy on Wednesday.

The Spaniard has been the recipient of abuse from large sections of Blues fans since taking over from Roberto Di Matteo in November at Stamford Bridge.

However, Benitez is hoping that some parting silverware will help get the fans off his back.

"You can always make mistakes but it was not an easy situation at the beginning," Benitez told Sky Sports News. "We have managed it quite well. Every day, after every training session, I go home and think we are doing our best.

"For me it is always important to win trophies. If we win it will be easier and people will realise that to be here, at this stage of the competition, means we have done a lot of things well. You have to analyse from the beginning. You have to analyse the age of our players, the new players, the transition period we have had, the short squad at times and all the competitions.

"After Thursday we will have played 68 games. For the last six months we have been playing two games a week at least. Imagine any team in the world doing that and progressing to semi-finals of two competitions and final of one. It doesn't matter what a lot of people say, we feel we have done a good job. Hopefully we can do even better."

Chelsea face Benfica in the Europa League final at the Amsterdam Arena on Wednesday.

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