Pedro Neto thinks Chelsea lost a bit of concentration in their Carabao Cup quarter final against Cardiff City on Tuesday night.
The Blues advanced to the semi finals with a 3-1 win over the League One outfit, but were made to work harder than they would have wanted.
Alejandro Garancho scored a second half brace, whilst Pedro Neto continued his good start to the season with another goal.
Pedro Neto on Chelsea lacking concentration
Enzo Maresca made 11 changes to the side which beat Everton 2-0 on Saturday, and he clearly had the game at Newcastle this weekend on his mind.
The Italian did name a strong bench, which ultimately turned out to be the difference as Chelsea had to call on the likes of Garnacho, Neto and Joao Pedro to get them over the line.
Chelsea celebrate as a generic group.
Neto gave Chelsea the lead with eight minutes left. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
Moises Caicedo also completed the 90 minutes, and it looked like the game was heading for a penalty shootout after David Turnbull equalised with 15 minutes remained.
However, Chelsea were able to score twice in the last ten minutes, but Neto feels the Blues lost concentration when Cardiff equalised.
“Sometimes we were under control but sometimes it’s the small details that make the difference,” he told Sky Sports.
“Maybe we lost a bit of concentration because we had a lot of corners in the time in the game, and the first time they went up after the corners, they score.
“So it was a bit of a lack of concentration, but in the end we could go through, so we are really happy.”
Fringe players fail to impress Enzo Maresca
Tuesday was a great opportunity for some of Chelsea’s fringe players to impress and show Maresca they should be playing more.
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Enzo Maresca looks concerned on the touchline.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink doing punditry for Amazon.
Enzo Maresca looks unhappy in a press conference after a win.
However, the Blues turned in an awful first half performance with Tyrique George and Marc Guiu both replaced at the break.
Jamie Gittens also struggled and failed to complete a successful dribble, and you can see why Maresca hasn’t given these players many minutes.