Tuchel thrilled with victory

THOMAS TUCHEL was delighted to reach the FA Cup final, but he was equally happy with the manner of Chelsea’s display after ending Manchester City’s quadruple quest.

Just days after both sides progressed to the Champions League semi-finals, the Blues came out on top at an empty Wembley to set-up a clash against Southampton or Leicester next month.

City looked tired and disjointed having made eight alterations for the semi- final, with Hakim Ziyech’s second-half strike enough to secure Chelsea a deserved 1-0 win.

“If you play against Pep you know that you play against the highest level of Europe because wherever he was at the sideline – Barcelona, Bayern [Munich] and now Man City

– for years he was the benchmark with his teams,” Tuchel said. “And he is again. You can see that with the Premier League. Our target was to close the gap for the 90 minutes because it’s possible in football and if you arrive in good momentum, we can make this happen.

“I am very, very happy and proud with the performance of our team because we played with a lot of courage, we were very self-confident and played very brave with the ball and against the ball.”

City boss Guardiola said: “I try to avoid all the people [ talking] about the four and always I said the same – ‘ the next one, next one’. I don’t know what’s going to happen this season. I’m incredibly delighted with what we have done so far.”