Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino showered Conor Gallagher with big praise after his match-winning performance yesterday in the FA Cup.
Chelsea are through to the FA Cup quarter-finals where they’ll host Leicester City after last night’s 3-2 victory at home to Leeds United.
Mateo Joseph’s brace either side of goals from Nicolas Jackson and Mykhailo Mudryk left the game at 2-2 going into the closing stages. However, Conor Gallagher came off the Blues bench as a substitute and scored a 90th minute winning goal at Stamford Bridge.
Gallagher may be having nightmares about some of the goalscoring chances he missed in Sunday’s League Cup final defeat to Liverpool, but he’ll surely feel a lot better after a last-minute winner against rivals Leeds.
Chelsea’s head coach was very positive in his post-match press conference.
When asked if Gallagher showed his importance versus Leeds, Pochettino responded via Football.London: “Yeah, of course, he is an important player and there is no doubt. We were talking at the beginning of the season, the contribution was fantastic for the team. I’m so happy for him.
“I said okay, don’t become top scorer, don’t score too much goals [smiles]. But the effort is there and the quality is there.”
Conor Gallagher form
Despite still missing some chances in front of goal, Gallagher’s started to make his mark in attack with four goals in his last five appearances.
The box-to-box midfielder offers so much to the Blues side both on and off the ball, so he must be a dream teammate.
Speaking via Chelsea’s 5th Stand App (9:26pm, 28 February), Jason Cundy hailed Chelsea star Gallagher for his “brilliant” goal against Leeds. The England international produced a clever turn to create space before finishing.
It was a concern when Gallagher wasn’t named in the starting line-up for Wednesday’s FA Cup tie. Thankfully, he provided the spark off the bench to help his side reman in the hunt for some silverware this season.
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