Tottenham's Mauricio Pochettino proud as Spurs 'respect philosophy' in Chelsea FA Cup semi-final defeat

1/46
Sam Long22 April 2017

Mauricio Pochettino says he was "proud" Tottenham stuck to their footballing philosophy in Saturday's 4-2 FA Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea.

Spurs endured a nightmare start at Wembley as Willian fired home an early free-kick but soon levelled through Harry Kane's stooping header.

Willian added another from the penalty spot and Dele Alli responded after the break to draw the north Londoners level again.

Substitute Eden Hazard put the Blues in front for a third time before Nemanja Matic wrapped up victory with a long-range effort late on, consigning Spurs to a seventh FA Cup semi-final loss.

Getty Images

But Pochettino is adamant his players should be praised for the way they performed at England's national stadium, despite failing to get the better of their rivals.

"4-2 looks like a big result for Chelsea but it's a game I feel proud of," he insisted.

"We gave all that we had. It's true we lost but it's the way we wanted to play.

"We respected our philosophy. The team showed great personality and character.

"If you see the game without emotion you will see that Tottenham played much better but they were clinical.

REUTERS

"We are disappointed but now we move on and try to be calm.

"We forced them to play deeper and play the counter attack.

"Congratulations to them and we will try to fight for the Premier League."

Spurs have little time to dwell on their Wembley disappointment with a trip to Crystal Palace to come on Wednesday night.

The north Londoners are just four points adrift of Premier League pacesetters Chelsea and Pochettino is convinced his players will suffer no hangover from their defeat to Antonio Conte's men.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in