The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Conte praises Chelsea desire after victory
Morata earns nod after ending goal drought in quarter-final win
LEICESTER CITY 1 CHELSEA 2 (AFTER EXTRA TIME)
Antonio Conte praised the character of his Chelsea players and striker Alvaro Morata after Sunday’s FA Cup quarterfinal win at Leicester.
Striker Morata ended a 13-game run without a goal with his first since Boxing Day in a 2-1 win secured by Pedro’s extra-time header.
The Blues will face Southampton in next month’s semi-final with Manchester United taking on Tottenham.
Conte’s satisfaction was because Chelsea lost 3-0 at Barcelona on Wednesday to go out of the Champions League, meaning the FA Cup is their last chance of silverware this season.
His side responded from conceding to Jamie Vardy 14 minutes from the end of normal time to advance.
“We must be pleased for the character we showed in this game against a really good team,” Conte said.
“After a game in Champions League it wasn’t easy for us to play 120 minutes in this way.
“Tonight we fought a lot against Leicester. We showed great desire, great will.
“For Alvaro it was very important to score. I’m very pleased with his performance.”
Southampton won through to the semis for the first time in 15 years after a 2-0 victory over Wigan in Mark Hughes’ first game in charge.
Wigan were looking to reach the last four for the third time in six seasons and the 2013 winners dominated the first half but paid for not taking their chances.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg hooked in a 62nd-minute corner for his first Saints goal and Manolo Gabbiadini then had a 73rd-minute penalty brilliantly saved by Christian Walton before Cedric Soares added a second in stoppage time to secure Southampton’s place.
Manchester United laboured into the semi-finals with a 2-0 win over Brighton on Saturday night but Jesse Lingard was keen to stress the importance of getting back to winning ways.
United beat the Seagulls 2-0 at Old Trafford, with Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic each netting headers, four days on from their Champions League last-16 elimination there at the hands of Sevilla.
The Red Devils produced a fairly underwhelming display as they secured a place at Wembley, and United boss Jose Mourinho, the day after defending his record in an extraordinary prematch press conference rant, was critical of his players.
Speaking to BT Sport, the Portuguese described Matic as “an island – an island of personality, of desire and control – surrounded by, not water, but by a lack of personality, of class and desire”, and added in his post-match press conference that some of his team had been “scared to play”.
Old target Luke Shaw, taken off at half-time, was among those to have his performance criticised.
Giving his assessment, winger Lingard said on manutd.com: “They (Brighton) sat back and hit us on the counter-attack a few times, which we were obviously aware of before the match, but we knew we needed to win and we got the win, which was the most important thing.
“Of course (confidence took a knock after Tuesday night). It’s always difficult for a team to be knocked out of a competition, but we showed the character to bounce back and not let anything faze us.”
Tottenham strolled into the last four with a Christian Eriksen-inspired 3-0 victory over Swansea on Saturday.
Eriksen capped a masterful midfield performance by scoring twice to take his personally tally against Swansea to an astonishing eight goals in 10 games, while Erik Lamela was also on target.
Spurs showed seven changes from the side that won at Bournemouth last week but, on this evidence, they have a real shot at winning the first trophy of Mauricio Pochettino’s four-year reign on the ground they call home this season.