Mauricio Pochettino revealed last night that his Chelsea team had been keen for the second leg as a chance for a little revenge over Middlesbrough, who beat them in the first leg.
“We felt a little disappointed [after the first game], we had the desire to play against Middlesbrough [again] because after the first game there was so much criticism.”
His verbiage is a little confusing, but it’s clear what he means. His team had the “desire” to play Middlesbrough last night in order to show everyone and show themselves that the first game was an outlier.
They certainly showed no mercy last night, and left nobody in any doubt.
You can see the Chelsea boss speaking in the clip embedded here:
Can’t blame the manager or the squad for feeling a bit unfairly maligned after the 1st leg. And I’m equally glad they were able to shrug off the blowhard pundits who were trying to frame the 2nd leg as if the entire season was riding on it—what a load of crap!
The boys looked sharp, even if Boro were woeful. The only thing I’d like to have seen was a bit more commitment to keeping the clean sheet from Disasi on the Roger’s goal. He never really looked like he took the threat seriously and that’s obviously not a loss of focus we’ll be able to afford if/when we (most likely) face Liverpool in the final.