CHELSEA WINGER WILLIAN has said he psyched out Ireland international David Meyler during their FA Cup meeting with Hull City last night, causing the midfielder to miss his penalty.
The Premier League champions came away with a 4-0 win to book their place in the quarter-finals, however Cork native Meyler missed a spot-kick six minutes after the break.
“I said to him: ‘you’re going to miss’”, the Brazilian international said speaking after the win.
“I said: ‘don’t shoot in the middle because Willy (Caballero) won’t move — he stays,’ and then when he missed I said ‘I told you’.”
The 29-year-old attacker scored a first-half brace, with further goals from Pedro and Oliver Giroud — his first goal for the club — notching Antonio Conte’s side up to 4-0 at the break.
The Tigers were offered a chance for a second-half consolation goal when Cesc Febregas brought down Harry Wilson inside the area.
Meyler smiled as he and Willian spoke before the spot-kick, with Argentine goalkeeper Caballero saving well moments later with a low parry diving to his right.
The win means the Blues have recorded back-to-back wins following a poor run of form which saw Conte’s side suffer defeats to both Bournemouth and Watford.
They face Barcelona at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday night, with Willian stressing the importance of building momentum before the visit of the La Liga leaders.
“I think in football always you have to improve and we did that and in these two weeks we worked hard, tried to improve ourselves,” he said.
“It’s important to get back to winning and now we have the big game on Tuesday.”
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