After Chelsea’s players were booed off the field by Middlesbrough’s travelling supporters in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final at the Riverside, Mauricio Pochettino claimed he could “understand” their fury.

As the final whistle sounded, several sections of the Chelsea away crowd were irate, and Pochettino’s squad was mocked as they tried to gather around to celebrate. While Thiago Silva got into an altercation with a few fans, the Chelsea faithful largely praised the veteran defender for being one of three players (along with Armando Broja and Levi Colwill) who remained to express their gratitude.

After a disastrоus night for Pochettino and his me𝚗, Middlesbrough took a 1-0 lead thanks to Hayden Hackney and will take that lead to Stamford Bridge in just over a month. The Blues dominated possession against Michael Carrick’s squad before the interval, but they were unable to capitalize on their dominance. Cole Palmer missed a brace of first-half chances for the Blues.

Pochettino, who has only been in charge for a short time this season, acknowledged the frustration of Chelsea fans at full time after their team’s 21st away loss in all competitions since the beginning of last season. No Premier League side has lost more games than Chelsea.

In an interview with Sky Sports, Pochettino addressed the boos, sаying, “I can’t sаy anything about [the boos] but of course we can understand why our fans will feel disappointed but there’s still 90 minutes to play.” He added that he did not hear the boos at full time.’

“Today, the approach was good,” the Argentine said of Chelsea’s performance. We are unable to comment on the mentality, but we were careless in the first half, allowing them several scoring opportunities. They took advantage of the changeover by acting aggressively. Dismantling this block was no easy task.

Football is all about having too many chances to score. We need to keep an optimistic attitude because we still have 90 minutes to play at Stamford Bridge in this tie.

Because we messed up, we got what we deserved. Taking a look at the stats, we were the superior team and had plenty of opportunities, so we need to keep going. Over the past six months, we’ve had numerous games when we lacked clinical play.

We can rest a few players in the fifteen days leading up to the second match. Our focus has shifted to Fulham, and from here we will proceed.

“I thought the lads were exceptional, outstanding – effort, spirit was just off the scale, I’m just so, so proud of them,” Boro boss Michael Carrick remarked.  My god, that night was unforgettable.

Things happen in cup competitions, and that’s what football is all about. The boys were fantastic, so we managed to pull off an event that arguably shouldn’t have happened—but we did.

“We’re prepared to face whatever comes our way down there, but that won’t stop us from giving it our all.”