‘Nothing but proud’ – Tuchel says Chelsea ‘left everything on the pitch’ in FA Cup final loss

Thomas Tuchel says he has no regrets after his side lost 6-5 on penalties to Liverpool in the final of the FA Cup at Wembley.

Chelsea lost to the same opponents in the League Cup final back in February – again on penalties, again after a scoreless 120 minutes – but Tuchel said his side left everything on the pitch and that he was proud of his charges.

“The way we played again we can be nothing but proud,” began Tuchel. “We left everything on the pitch, so there are no regrets. But of course we are disappointed and sad.”

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The Chelsea boss added that after a nervous start, his side grew into the game.

“It was clear that in some moments we would suffer and unfortunately we did in the first 15 minutes. We looked nervous and tense,” Tuchel added.

“We also played with one less day in recovery. We had an away game against Leeds on Wednesday and played again 120 minutes today but it was clear we would suffer against this team.

“We managed to stay in the match, clearly because of an excellent goalkeeping performance from Edou [Mendy]. We dug in and got better and better, more confident and we found solutions and created chances ourselves. Everybody is in pain, there is no way you escape this game without pain.”

Tuchel added that his side would be able to draw on the experience in the future.

“Every experience helps you, like it or not,” he added.

“Obviously, you’d like to be on the winning side. I think we did everything to be the deserved winners but, like it or not, we need to play again on Thursday and secure our goals in the Premier League.”

Chelsea face Leicester in the Premier League on Thursday before closing their campaign against Watford on Sunday May 22. They sit in third and hold a four-point advantage over Arsenal in fourth and five over Tottenham in fifth with all three sides having two games left to play.

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