Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel admits that the performance at Barnsley was not the display they expected but he is relieved they through to the quarter final of the FA Cup.
The game ended 1-0 in favour of the Blues as Tammy Abraham’s only goal was the difference in the game.
Chelsea boss admits that it was hard to deal with pressure and he had to make some changes to help the team play a better game.
“I have to be honest, yes, I am relieved,’ said Tuchel before returning south, ‘but we can stop the analysis. It is already done. Chelsea through to the quarter-finals – full-stop!
“We can clearly play better, it was not our best performance,’ he continued. ‘To cope with the difficulties today was hard for us.
“To cope with the pressure, to escape the pressure in our own half we made some changes at half-time, then we played better in the second half, in a different structure to help the team.
“We played it very well until we scored a very nice goal but after that, the opponent again took a lot of risks and played very aggressively. We had trouble to cope with the first challenges, trouble to cope with the second balls and so in the end it was way too deep for too many minutes.
“We were lucky twice” Tuchel admitted. ‘In the first half to have Kepa who saved us, and we were lucky when Tammy saved us with the header on the line, so in the end we have to admit that we struggled to play but in the cup it is sometimes like this.
“I don’t want to be too harsh with the guys. The circumstances were not too easy and we went through which is the most important thing.”
