Chelsea stun the Whites by 3-2 in the FA round

Mauricio Pochettino praised Chelsea's much-needed win against Leeds United in the FA Cup. After getting a negative result in the Carabao Cup final, this positive score is a drought quencher for them. The Blues won against a team from the Championship in the fifth-round match of the 2023/24 FA Cup while playing at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, the Hosts defeated their opponents 3-2 courtesy of  Nicolas Jackson, Mykhaylo Mudryk and Conor Gallagher who were able to guide Chelsea to end the match with a win. Meanwhile, Leeds could only respond through two goals from Mateo Joseph.

With this result, Chelsea will set to face Leicester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals on 16 March 2024. The 11th-placed EPL side is struggling in the middle of the Premier League and the FA Cup is their last realistic chance to win a trophy. After the match, Pochettino admitted that he was relieved by this victory even though he was a little disappointed with the performance shown by the Chelsea players.

"We needed this result. Even though it wasn't a great performance from us," said Pochettino. "Leeds United is a confident team, a very strong team, the Whites have been fantastic in the Championship. It's difficult for us when you concede after a few minutes. But the character we showed after this situation, is something that can be learned from the team.

"I'm very happy, we avoided extra time and now we are in the quarter-finals, which was our target." Then, the coach from Argentina briefly touched on the effects of the defeat his team suffered when competing in the Carabao Cup last night. According to the 51-year-old head coach, it is not easy to immediately get up after experiencing minor results in that match. "It's always difficult when you lose a final in extra time. We have 72 hours or less to recover, it's always difficult," continued Pochettino. "The effort has been enormous and I would like to thank the players for putting in a fantastic effort."