Despite the 2-1 reverse, Chelsea reached the Europa Conference League semifinals 4-2 on aggregate.
Afterwards, Maresca said:"First of all, yeah, we are for sure not happy with the defeat. Probably the first leg, 0-3, probably we try to manage a little bit the result, rotate, make rotation with the players, try to avoid injury, because we have an important game also Sunday. So, as I said, for sure not happy with the result.
"We are in the semi-final, but at the same time probably we were trying to manage a little bit the first leg, the result, we are there. But overall, the good thing is that we can rotate players, we don't have injury, that for us was the main target, because during the season we had many injuries, an important moment, and because it's an important moment now, the last part of the season, the good news was that we don't have injury."
Trying to find goals
Asked about fielding Cole Palmer and Nico Jackson, Maresca admits he was hoping one or both of them would score so to end their long-running drought.
He said, "Nico has been more than two months out, so the idea to play with him is to continue to build a little bit the physical condition for him, so the idea was for him 45 minutes, we planned already that, and for Cole, he had a small problem before the international break, so again, for him it was to use him 45 minutes, one hour, and then just to give them a little bit tempo and improve that and be better Sunday on the game.
"Yeah, first of all the main target for them was to help them to build physical condition, so we decided to use both of them, and for sure if they are able to score, it could be a good boost for them, but for me probably we managed in the wrong way the first result there, but the good thing is again, we have six Premier League games that are very important for us, fortunately we rotate players, and this is for us in this moment very important."
On a lack of goals from his attacking players overall, Maresca admits it's a growing concern.
He said, "Yeah no, especially the ones that we are missing, unfortunately they are very easy goals, because again I think tonight in the first five minutes we had two chances, but it can happen, hopefully very soon Nico and Cole can start to score goals because they are very important for us. In this moment the one that is scoring more goals for us is Cucu, and that means a good thing because he's not the one that has to score goals."
Big picture
Finally, on the emotions of the defeat, Maresca urged calm and pushed for the big picture after reaching the competition's final four.
Maresca said: "For sure in terms of setback, for sure it's a setback tonight for us, no doubt, first of all because we lost the game. But I said yesterday, I think probably the other clubs, as you said, in this moment they can feel more confidence around them, not only Aston Villa, Newcastle, all the clubs around us, but this is football and can change very quickly, so it depends a lot on us. As I said, Sunday for us is one of the finals, and winning that game can give us a final boost to reach our target.
"So in this moment, you win games, you see yourself and you are very happy. If you don't win, no-one is thinking that you can finish in the right way, but for me it's just how we manage the emotion."