FA Cup fall-out: Sheffield Utd not easy meat to swallow – Tuchel
Chelsea boss, Thomas Tuchel, has said it was not easy for his wards to advance into the FA Cup semi-finals after posting a 2-0 win over Sheffield United on Sunday.
Speaking to BBC One: “[It] sounds excellent to say we’re through to the semi-finals – it was a tough match. We had a good first half where we controlled everything. We lost control in the second half, we were clearly tired.
“After 14 consecutive matches I could feel we were tired and we made many little faults. We were lucky to keep the clean sheet in the second half but I think it’s the first time in the 14 games we have looked tired. It’s important to go through in the cup and that was the target and we reached it.
“We let them come back because we had full control in the first half and in the second half [we had] a big chance with Christian Pulisic to finish the game early. We made too many easy mistakes and lost duels and lost some momentum. I could tell in training we were tired and there was a lack of concentration.
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“That can happen sometimes, it gets harder to keep the level up – I’m happy we could help from the bench and in the end we have the win so we take that.”
Sheffield United interim manager Paul Heckingbottom, speaking to BBC One: “It’s a sickener but there are a lot of pleasing things. We more than deserved extra time. We want to look forward and take the positives.
“We’ll never get a better chance, I don’t think we started in the first half but we had a go second half and I was pleased with the response.”
“The first goal is disappointing because it was good play but we could have dealt with it. The second one you accept it might come up and you’re susceptible. If it hadn’t gone in we would still have two minutes to try again and have another chance because when we were going forward we were causing them problems.
“I’m encouraged, it’s been another week of turmoil and adversity, the boys we have put out showed a fight and willingness. The worst thing that can happen is we lose a football match and the best thing is we win one and everyone will be talking about it. We can’t lose focus, we move on.
“It will be nice to get the players away for a while. Some boys are away on international and then we’ll all be back together in a few weeks. But we’ll be working hard with the boys we’ve got left.”
Chelsea lost 2-1 to Arsenal in the 2020 final in August – as Frank Lampard failed to win a trophy in his season and a half in charge.
His last game as manager was the 3-1 fourth-round victory over Luton in January and new boss Thomas Tuchel has steered them to wins over Barnsley and Sheffield United to send them back to Wembley.
This victory continues their fantastic record under the German, who is yet to lose in his 14 games, has lifted them from ninth to fourth in the Premier League and also taken them into the Champions League quarter-finals.
Before the game at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea had caused confusion by publishing the wrong team on their Twitter account.
When they corrected it, it showed they had made nine changes from the side that began Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Atletico Madrid as a number of squad players were given the chance to impress Tuchel.
They went ahead in the 24th minute when the unfortunate Norwood steered the ball into his own goal from Chilwell’s cross and were only denied a second when Pulisic’s shot was blocked by Ramsdale.