Chelsea Boss Antonio Conte Reacts To Southampton FA Cup Draw

Chelsea fought their way to a second successive FA Cup semi-final under Antonio Conte - but the Italian warned his team not to take Southampton for granted.

Conte’s team grabbed an extra time victory at the King Power Stadium in an epic quarter final tie, thanks to Pedro’s late header, and then learned they had avoided both Tottenham and Manchester United in the draw last night for the last four.

Instead, Chelsea will face Southampton, 2-0 victors over Wigan under new manager Mark Hughes, at Wembley.

But Conte warned: “Easy draw? When you arrive at this point of the tournament, it’s very difficult to consider a game ‘easy’.

“Don’t forget Manchester City were eliminated by Wigan. We must be ready to fight to try to reach the final at Wembley for the second time in a row. It will be very important for us, but we have to know that Southampton have the same idea as us.

“Last season we reached the FA Cup final and lost. Every game is very difficult. It will be very difficult against Southampton.

“But we want to try and do our best in every competition. We reached the semi-final in the Carabao Cup as well. We want to try and do our best and give the best satisfaction to our fans, who pushed the team a lot today. I want to thank the fans for their support.”

The Cup remains Chelsea’s only chance of silverware this season, and Conte said: “This trophy is very important, very important in this country. Last season it was a pity to lose the final. To celebrate the Double would have been nice. This season our target is to try and reach the final again. When we do that, I want to try to change the result compared to last season.”

Chelsea, beaten by Barcelona in the Champions League in midweek, took the lead then Alvaro Morata scored his goal in 14 games.

Jamie Vardy levelled for Leicester, but inextra time Pedro capitalised on a blunder by goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel to head the winner.

Conte added: “For sure, it was very important for Alvaro to score, but I was very pleased with his performance. He showed great character and that he is strong. This goal will be very important for the future for us.”

Disappointed Leicester manager Claude Puel though said: “We cannot blame Kasper for the goal. He’s been fantastic, and made fantastic saves here. There is nothing to blame him for. We had chances to come back into the game. We have to keep this positive attitude and quality on the pitch to finish the season strongly.”