Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino surprisingly praised his team’s effort and performance as good, despite their 1-0 loss to Middlesbrough, a Championship side, in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final.
Hayden Hackney scored the only goal of the game, while Chelsea struggled to overcome Michael Carrick’s team at Riverside.
Chelsea had control of the ball for most of the game and spent a lot of time near Middlesbrough’s goal, but they didn’t pose a significant threat and their disappointing season continued on a memorable night in Teesside.
However, Pochettino had no trouble finding the good aspects of their performance that evening.
“The performance was good,” Pochettino told Sky Sports. “We cannot say nothing about the attitude. We were punished for our mistakes. In football, that happens. Disappointing because if we assess the performance, we were the better side. But we didn’t score, we weren’t clinical.”
In his post-match press conference, Pochettino added: “It’s so easy to explain. We made big mistakes in the first half and we were punished. Other games you can talk in a different way. Second half we dominate but did not create good chances. In 15 days we will have the second tie and we need to be positive we can win the game.
“Punished because of some mistakes we made. We are agreed, we concede a goal because of our mistake. They take advantage of that. We create enough chances to score and draw, we assess the game after 90 minutes, I think we were the better side but if you don’t score goals you cannot win. Credit to them. They scored and we didn’t score.
“I am disappointed because I think we deserve another result. Sometimes you play well and win. Sometimes we play well and we are not clinical enough. That is the process. Always in a process when you are building a team is tough. Today we made few mistakes and concede a goal that we should not concede and then we were not clinical enough.”
Chelsea’s closest opportunity to score against Middlesbrough occurred when Cole Palmer seized a rebound and had a clear shot at the goal.
