Matic delighted, Pochettino devastated

Mauricio Pochettino believes his Tottenham Hotspur side were "fantastic" in the defeat to Chelsea and that they deserved more from the game.

The Blues eventually ran out 4-2 winners with two goals in the last 15 minutes sealing the victory.

Twice Spurs had come from behind to level the game but after Eden Hazard had put Antonio Conte's side ahead on 75 minutes against the run of play, they were unable to hit back again and succumbed to the club's seventh successive loss at the semi-final stage of the FA Cup.

"Congratulations to Chelsea," Pochettino said. "We dominated the game but they were more clinical than us. I feel proud, we were fantastic in the way we played and in our philosophy. They had five shots and scored four goals and we score only two.

"It is important to speak about the moments of the game. We fought a lot. We tried and scored. The penalty for me was a soft penalty or was not a penalty. To go into the changing room 2-1 down was difficult and again ee played well in the second half and scored but then they came back.

"Only now we can look forward. We are four points behind them and we will try to win our next game. I am not worried. The team is strong, we are focused. We were competing today with one of the best teams in Europe. Did we deserve more? Sure, but that is football. 

"Now we will try to be calm, watch the game again and try to improve. We are in a process of trying to improve, if we cannot win the FA Cup this season we will try again next season.

"We have another difficult game coming up against Crystal Palace. It is a tough league to play but we are OK. For sure now we are disappointed but that is football."

Nemanja Matic, who scored a superb goal for Chelsea's fourth, was delighted with the result.

"It was a nice goal!" he told BBC Sport. "But first of all I want to say I am very happy for the team, that we're going to play in the final. 

"Today was hard against a very good team. Congratulations to Spurs, who didn't give up. 

"I am happy for my goal, it was a great goal, but it's not the best I've ever scored. I scored a harder one in a Benfica v Porto derby - this is perhaps my second best ever! 

"It's great when you have a chance to play in this stadium. For our supporters, you can see this is something special. To have a chance to win this trophy is significant for us as players. 

"This result gives us more confidence of course - it's always good to win. Now we have to recover quickly for the next game on Tuesday."

Image: Getty/Ian Kington