Chelsea ease pressure on Pochettino
Bafana coach reflects after Afcon exit
BIRMINGHAM, England. — Chelsea responded to a troubling week with a superb 3-1 win at Aston Villa to reach the fifth round of the FA Cup and put a smile back on the face of Mauricio Pochettino on Wednesday.
Successive heavy losses in the Premier League had left manager Pochettino under intense scrutiny ahead of the fourth-round replay, but first-half goals by Conor Gallagher and Nicolas Jackson put Chelsea in control before Enzo Fernandez delivered a sublime free-kick after halftime.
Villa, who are on the fringe of the Premier League title race and 15 points above Chelsea, were outplayed pretty much from start to finish as their Cup hopes evaporated and Moussa Diaby’s late effort was a mere consolation.
Eight-time FA Cup winners Chelsea will host Leeds United in round five in a throwback to the 1970 final.
Nottingham Forest scraped into the fifth round as they edged out second-tier Bristol City on penalties after a 1-1 draw at the City Ground. Forest will host Manchester United next.
Pochettino’s pre-match news conference on Tuesday had seen the Argentine field questions about whether or not he still had the backing of the club’s owners with his side in 11th place in the league despite a massive outlay on signings.
Bizarrely the former Tottenham Hotspur and Paris St Germain manager also came under fire from the wife of his experienced defender Thiago Silva who took to social media calling for change after a 4-2 home drubbing by Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Veteran Silva was left on the bench at Villa Park but Pochettino’s young guns finally delivered the kind of sustained display that has been sadly lacking this season.
“I think so,” he said when asked whether it was the best performance since he took charge last summer.
“I’m so happy with the performance. It’s about being solid and consistent and that’s the most difficult for a young team to find the balance. Today I was so pleased, the team was ready to compete, ready to fight with energy and attitude.”
Chelsea’s league campaign has been terrible by the club’s standards but they have reached the League Cup final against Liverpool later this month and will now be confident of a quarter-final berth in the FA Cup. Villa began brightly but were stopped in their tracks in the 11th minute as Jackson pulled the ball back for Chukwunonso Madueke who teed up Gallagher to sidefoot a clinical finish into the roof of the net.
With confidence surging, Chelsea doubled their lead in the 21st minute as rightback Malo Gusto’s cross was headed past Emiliano Martinez to send the 7,000 visiting fans wild.
Enzo Fernandez’s impact at Chelsea has failed to justify the more than 100 million pounds ($126 million) the club splashed out to sign him.
But he showed his class with an unstoppable curling free kick that had his World Cup-winning Argentina teammate Martinez clawing at thin air.
The joy amongst the buoyant Chelsea fans was unrestrained and while one victory will not take the spotlight off Pochettino, Wednesday’s performance might just prove to be a turning point.
“It was exactly the reaction we wanted and needed. It wasn’t about wanting a reaction. We needed it. Fair play to all of the boys,” Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell told ITV. “We wanted that pressure. We thrived off it. The confidence before the game in the changing room was the best it’s been.” — Reuters.
DESPITE missing out on the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) final after losing to Nigeria in the semi-final on Wednesday, Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos is proud of the amount of work he has done with the senior national team since he took over.
Broos guided Bafana to the Afcon semifinal before losing to the Super Eagles 4-2 on penalties on Wednesday at Stade Bouake, missing out on a chance to reach the final after the match finished 1-1.
Bafana will face DR Congo tomorrow in the third playoff match at Stade Felix in Cote d’Ivoire at 10 pm.
Broos, who was appointed as Bafana coach in 2021, said he had to change many things at the national team to perform the way they are doing and wants to build on their performance from the Afcon going forward.
“When I came to SA, first of all, I was a little bit surprised that there were so many old players in the team,” Broos told the media during the post-match press conference.
“So, that means we had to change, and I had a lot of critics . . . I took players not only from the big teams but also from the small clubs.
“But it needed some time, and it was nearly one year before we found what we wanted to have. From that time, it got better, we qualified for Afcon, and we started to play good games.
“But we also changed the style of SA football. We tried to play more direct, more vertical. We tried to have more movement in the team, and I think we succeeded.
“When you see us play today, there is a lot of movement in the team. A lot of depth. A lot of vertical passes, and we defend well. Tactically, I think we progressed also, and it means we did a very good job. It’s a pity that we are not in the final.”
The Belgian coach felt his side deserved to play in the final and rued the missed chances they had in the game against Nigeria before going on to lose in penalties.
“Football can be hard; when you see the performance of my team today (Wednesday) and then there are penalties and you lose the game, you are not in the final, it’s hard to accept that,” he said.
“Because we played a very good game. I think we were the best team in the first half, we had the best chances. Nigeria didn’t have anything, nothing.
“Second half, maybe they had chances, and they could score, but we changed something tactical, but two minutes before the end of 90 minutes, we had three chances and if we scored there, we could be going to the final.
“That can happen in football. It is a big disappointment for everyone because we feel like we played a very good game. Not only today, but we played a very good Afcon. I’m proud of my players for what they did and performed not only today and I have to be proud as a coach.” — Sowetan.