MAURICIO Pochettino says Chelsea's response to their first leg Middlesbrough defeat was crucial in helping his side overcome that deficit in emphatic fashion and book a spot in the Carabao Cup final.

The Premier League side slumped to a 1-0 semi-final first leg defeat at the Riverside a fortnight ago, but Pochettino said his players ignored the critics after that setback and "saw the reality" ahead of the second leg at Stamford Bridge.

Boro headed for the capital with hope but Chelsea blew them away with four goals before the half-time and added a couple more before Morgan Rogers' late consolation.

Pochettino said: "The result was good. I think we are improving from the beginning of the season. If you look at all of the circumstances, we need to be happy because we are competing. To reach the final, I think it was our first objective from the beginning.

"We need to congratulate the players for the effort, amazing. In which ways we are improving, I think we are believing, we are not listening too much when we don't win or we are not scoring too much, like what happened in the first game against Middlesbrough.

"We accept the critics but I think it is the most important [thing] to keep the focus, and to see the reality. We need to see the reality and of course split what is Chelsea and what is the team we are building – they are two different things."

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He continued: "I think it's an amazing achievement because I think it was our objective from the start. With no Europe, no Champions League, no Europa League, no Conference League, to build a team nearly from zero, it was our objective to be at Wembley in February – and that job is done.

"But now it is about to win the final. Yeah, I'm so happy. But on the other side it looks like it's not important because Chelsea is about to win Champions Leagues, Premier League and it looks like it's not so important.

"I think we need to start to realise and give credit to the team. I think it's important for the club, important for us and this process to build a new team."

Pochettino added: “I’m desperate to win a trophy here. We won in three trophies in one and a half years at Paris (St Germain) and we want to win here.

“I’m desperate to win. That is the headline.

“It’s really important for us, we’re going to have Fulham or Liverpool, two amazing teams, it will be difficult. But now is the moment to believe we can win.”