Chelsea 3-2 Leeds United: Conor Gallagher scores the winning goal in the 90th minute to take the Blues into the FA Cup quarter-finals

Conor Gallagher scored the winning goal in the last minute as Chelsea secured a dramatic victory over Leeds United to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals.

The win continues Chelsea's trophy hopes. Lost 1-0 to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final. on sunday.

Mauricio Pochettino's side will return to Wembley for the FA Cup semi-final if they beat Championship leaders Leicester City at home in the last eight in March.

The Argentine started his role as manager in July and felt his performances were improving, but the team needed more time.

“We are Chelsea so expectations are high, but this team needs to build and develop confidence,” Pochettino said. “Cohesion is starting to grow, but it's not magic and you can't just create it.

“It's difficult because there are expectations. We need to find the right balance and we need time for them to perform.

“We've been doing great over the last four weeks and the team is starting to fight and act as a team.”

Chelsea fell behind in the early stages as Mateo Joseph scored his first goal for the first team due to a defensive error, but Leeds took the lead after just nine minutes.

However, the visiting team, second in the second division, took the lead for just six minutes.

Nicholas Jackson made it 1-1 with a low shot from Moises Caicedo's pass, but Myhailo Mudryk gave Chelsea the lead in the 37th minute when he curled Raheem Sterling's pullback into the bottom corner.

Still, Leeds were in the ascendancy at the start of the second half, with Joseph scoring their second goal with a header at the back post, connecting with Jadon Anthony's excellent cross for a deserved equaliser.

Anthony failed to capitalize on two chances to put the visitors ahead until substitute Gallagher converted the winner.

Chelsea's fierce battle for victory

Chelsea won the Champions League in 2021 and subsequently won both the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.

However, in the 2022-23 season, they only finished 12th in the Premier League, missing out on qualifying for Europe, and this season they are in 11th place, putting them in danger of missing out on continental football again in the 2024-25 season.

Chelsea have spent more than £1bn on transfers since May 2022, when the club was acquired by a consortium led by American investor Todd Boley and private equity firm Clearlake Capital.

However, the players were heavily criticized when they lost to a young Liverpool side in the Carabao Cup final, with former England international and Manchester United defender Gary Neville calling Chelsea “the worst”. “The Blue Billion Pound Bottle Job”.

Pochettino found the comments harsh and added: [Neville] I was frustrated because Liverpool won the title again. It's not fair to criticize people like this on a very young team.”

His team would have faced even more criticism if they had been eliminated from the FA Cup, but despite being outclassed for much of the second half against an excellent Leeds team. Regardless, the host team got the job done.

Gallagher admitted Chelsea had to respond positively to their critics.

“that [the final loss] I was very disappointed and I wanted to bounce back and give the fans something to celebrate and I managed to do that,” Gallagher said.

“It's been a really tough few days and everyone was down, but it was a very important game and we had to make sure we were right and the players worked hard to get the win. did.”

Daniel Farke's Leeds side can be proud of their efforts and should now focus on their main goal of winning promotion to the Premier League.

Farke told BBC Radio 5 Live that he was “very proud” of his team's performance but felt Chelsea were “clinical”.

“In the second half we had more possession, more shots on goal and more expected goals,” he added.

“It wasn't a coincidence that we scored the second goal. We wanted to dominate possession and stick to our beliefs. I would like to give a lot of praise to the young players.”