Mauricio Pochettino said Chelsea were the better side in the 1-0 loss to Middlesbrough in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg, but he was left to bemoan a host of missed opportunities.
Chelsea’s main threat came in the first half when Cole Palmer squandered a hat-trick of chances from close range to let Middlesbrough off the hook after some dismal defending.
The hosts capitalised on Chelsea’s profligacy and took the lead in the latter stages of the first half when Hayden Hackney finished off a blistering counter-attack.
Mistakes coupled with a lack of urgency made the missed chances from Palmer somewhat of an afterthought, with Chelsea failing to seriously threaten an equaliser in the second half.
Pochettino felt Chelsea were the better side and can put things right in the second leg, but a common theme of wasted chances is starting to emerge.
“Today, the approach was good. We can’t say anything about the attitude, but we made mistakes in the first half and gave chances for them to score. They were aggressive and played on the transition. It was hard to break down this block.
“We had too many chances to score and that’s football. It’s only the first half of the tie and we have another 90 minutes at Stamford Bridge so we have to be positive.
“We made some mistakes and we were punished for that. We have to keep pushing as if we assess the performance, overall we were the better side, created clear chances. We weren’t clinical and that’s happened a lot in the six months across many games.
“We have 15 days [before the second leg] so we can recover some players. We’re now thinking about Fulham and we will move on.”
After the game, Chelsea supporters who had made the trip to the Riverside Stadium appeared to be furious with the performance they had witnessed.
“I didn’t see what was going on there,” said Pochettino. “I can’t say anything about that. Of course, we can understand why our fans will feel disappointed but there is still 90 minutes to play.”
