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Brian Kimathi
Marc Cucurella argues with Chelsea coach and why Pedro Neto was unhappy with Calum McFarlane
Some moments you may have missed from Chelsea's crucial 1-0 FA Cup semi-final victory over Leeds United at Wembley Stadium on Sunday afternoon
CommentsChelseaBobby Vincent Senior Chelsea reporter16:00, 27 Apr 2026
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The FA Cup final, against Manchester City, awaits the Blues next month – in what will be their last bid to salvage something from a disappointing campaign. On top of that, Calum McFarlane, in his first match in his second spell as interim head coach, ended Chelsea's dire run of form.
Going into the semi-final at Wembley, the Blues lost seven of their last eight matches under the now-departed Liam Rosenior – threatening to derail their season. In the Premier League, it now looks an incredibly tough task to secure Champions League qualification but there is a chance for major silverware with the FA Cup.
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In the midst of the full-time celebrations, with Chelsea players and staff jubilant on the pitch in a sun-bathed Wembley, football.london spotted something interesting. Marc Cucurella was deep in conversation with the club's technical analyst Bernardo Cueva, who focuses largely on how the team operates during set-piece situations.
The two could be seen having a disagreement over something. Perhaps it is common for those types of situations to occur in the heat of the moment, just a few minutes after Chelsea secured a narrow victory in an intense environment. However, it was intriguing to see the two exchanging words about something they clearly disagreed on.
It wasn't the only disagreement of the day either. Pedro Neto seemed unhappy with McFarlane at one point in the second half, and was shouting over to the interim head coach to vent his frustrations. It is unclear what the debate was about, but it occurred just after Neto had been asked to swap to the left wing following Cole Palmer's introduction.
Either way, McFarlane would have been delighted with Neto's impact on the semi-final. A fantastic delivery from the Portugal international set up the only goal of the game, with Enzo Fernandez heading into the bottom corner from close range in the 23rd minute at Wembley.
For McFarlane, it was the "best day of his career", helping secure a place in the final of the FA Cup, as Chelsea look to win the country's most historic competition for a ninth time next month. Speaking to BBC Radio 5Live after the win over Leeds, the interim head coach said: "It was the best day of my career by an absolute mile, I have got family at the ground and all of them are lifelong Chelsea fans – it's the stuff dreams are made of, you know."
He added: "There were some really nice spells of football in the first half. The thing I'm most proud of is that, Leeds are a good side, they will have moments in the game. It's a massive occasion for them, they want to reach the FA Cup final.
"They had the ascendancy at times. But I thought our character, our fight and our drive was brilliant, we speak tactically a lot but tactics go out of the window at times and I thought the fight, winning second balls, headers, defending set pieces, the character of the group was exceptional.
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"That has been questioned a lot. And rightly so at times, maybe, but that is us at our best and we have to show that level as often as we can, this group is massively capable of that."
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