Chelsea manager Mairicio Pochettino has praised his players for their commanding performances against Chelsea in the FA Cup quarterfinals on Sunday.
The Blues recorded a 4-2 victory over the Foxes in a thrilling encounter which ensured a passage into the semifinals of the competition.
Goals from Marc Cucurrela, Cole Palmer gave Pochettino’s men a first-half lead. Leicester then reduced the deficit through an own goal from Alex Disasi and levelled through Stephy Mavididi before the Blues scored twice though Carney Chukwuemeka and Noni Madueke to win the game.
Elated by the displays, Pochettino has hailed his players for their efforts and believed his side deserves to move into the next stage of the competition which will take place at Wembley.
Pochettino said: “Yes, it was harder [than it needed to be], If we scored with all the chances we created in the first half I think the game would have been finished after 45 minutes. But we missed too many chances. Then conceding [the first goal] in the way we did had an emotional impact.
“That is the magic of the FA Cup – as we saw yesterday with Coventry and that is football. ‘But we fully deserve to be in Wembley and we will now go back to Wembley. We are in the FA Cup semi-final, so we are going twice at the moment but hopefully three times (including the final) we can go.
“But I think this group of players deserve great credit and also the staff. In the circumstance of the beginning of the season, to go twice and fight for cups twice, is massive.”
Notwithstanding the impressive performances from his side, Pochettino believed that there are areas that his team still must improve on inorder to achieve more feats.
“We scored five today with the goal of Axel as well. I think we need to find a collective balance because we have great offensive players.
“They also need to think about defensive actions. There are two phases in football, one with the ball and one without the ball, and when we concede goals it is not only about the goalkeeper or the defensive line.
“We cannot at the moment find this balance. We have young players who need to be more mature and have more energy when we go to press and run backwards.
“That is the reality and that is why it is difficult to find consistency. We need to fix that with time and find the balance in this aspect.”
Chelsea will play Burnley in a Premier League game at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, March 30.
