CHELSEA DEFENDER CESAR Azpilicueta was critical of his side’s performance against Slavia Prague which saw them advance to the Europa League semi-finals.
The Blues, up 1-0 after the first leg in the quarter-final tie, jumped out to a quick 3-0 advantage over their visitors at Stamford Bridge through Pedro, a Simon Deli own goal and a strike from Olivier Giroud.
While Prague did cut it to 3-1, a second goal from Pedro seemed to salt away the tie just under a half-hour into the contest.
But a poor start to the second-half saw Chelsea concede twice to Petr Sevcik in the 51st and 53rd minute, making it 5-3 on aggregate and leading to a nervy final 40 minutes for Chelsea.
While the Blues ultimately saw out the victory, Azpilicueta was unimpressed with the second half, noting this is something that has plagued the squad this season.
“It is a mistake we are making very often and we are conceding early goals in the second half of games,” Azpilicueta told BT Sport. “We were 4-1 up but they put us in trouble and we were risking it. We were suffering until the end.
“It is not the way we want to win the trophy but we are in the semi-final and hopefully we can get through.”
Manager Maurizio Sarri echoed those sentiments, admitting the squad struggled to begin the second half.
However, Sarri chose to focus more on his team’s success on the evening – dispatching hardworking and difficult opposition to make it to the semi-finals of the competition.
“We started very badly in the second half but I’m really really happy because we played well in the first 45 minutes and we are in a European semi-final which is very important to us,” Sarri told BT Sport.
“We knew very well the match was going to be difficult. They ran a lot and with quality – lot of metres at high speed.”
The Blues will face Eintracht Frankfurt in the semi-finals of the competition with the first leg to come May 1 in Germany and the second leg 8 May at Stamford Bridge.
Victory in the semi-final would set up a final against either Valencia or an all-England showpiece against London rivals Arsenal in Baku on 29 May.
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Even when on the bench he didn’t get game time. The coach doesn’t like or trust him. Saturday once again showed just how wrong O’connor has been all season
O’Connor is just all wrong for Leinster.
He has a very big chance next season with Leinster during the World Cup, midfield won’t be as competitive so he should get a good run of matches.
Mark if Darcy doesn’t make the World Cup squad, he’ll play 12 with t’eo at 13. Then Madigan and sexton will be back so the midfield won’t be as easy to get into as you may think
That pop pass from O’Brien
Battle between him and Madigan for the 12 jersey next season.
It’s always to easy to see who coaches ‘just like/don’t like’. When Gopperth played badly it was ignored whereas when Madigan played mediocre or even if Reid played well decisions went against them.
It creates such a poisonous culture as some players start to feel entitled to spots and others feel it doesn’t matter how well they play they won’t get picked. Cody and Fergusson were masters at disregarding players identities and judging on match performance alone. MOC is such a stink manager.