Pochettino ready for final after Chelsea's beating of Boro
Mauricio Pochettino said he is desperate to win the Carabao Cup in his first season at Chelsea after watching his team sweep aside Middlesbrough 6-1 to reach next month’s final at Wembley.
Stamford Bridge has suffered from a quiet atmosphere in recent months, often exacerbated by Chelsea failing to break teams down early, but a repeat here never looked like being a risk as they booked a meeting with either Liverpool or Fulham on 26 February (AEDT).
“I’m desperate to win a trophy here,” Pochettino said. “We won in three trophies in one and a half years at Paris (St Germain) and we want to win here.
“I’m desperate to win. That is the headline.
“It’s really important for us, we’re going to have Fulham or Liverpool, two amazing teams, it will be difficult. But now is the moment to believe we can win.”
Trailing 1-0 from the first leg at Riverside Stadium, the hosts tore into their EFL Championship opponents and banished memories of a chastening loss on Teesside, scoring four before half-time before finishing off the visitors with two more in the second half.
Pochettino added: “Now we need to prepare for Friday [Saturday AEDT] against Aston Villa [in the FA Cup], but this is an important step for us. The confidence and the belief in ourselves is so important.
“That is going to help because of the motivation. Players who are so close to coming back [from injury] – tomorrow, maybe a few injured players will want to come for training, seeing that the final is close.”
Boro manager Carrick reflected on a tie that ultimately proved too great a hurdle for his side despite heroics on Teesside two weeks ago.
“[The players] will learn from that after they have gotten over the disappointment,” he said.
“We had a big night at the Riverside where we managed to beat a really good Chelsea team. We just couldn’t get it done here unfortunately.”
