VAR cheat cost Chelsea FA cup trophy – Tuchel

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel felt his side had done enough to win the FA Cup but “decisive” video assistant referee calls went against them.

The Blues lost their second successive final as they were beaten 1-0 by Leicester courtesy of Youri Tielemans’ stunning strike at Wembley.

There was suggestion of a handball by Ayoze Perez in the buildup but a VAR review deemed no infringement.

“The players said straight away it was a handball. So now for the second game in a row there was a handball against us, and VAR is not interfering. Against Arsenal there was one on the line, and again today, and they are very decisive.

“I’m not an expert in handball any more, I don’t know when it’s handball or not. I don’t know any more when they need to punish it or it’s OK to play with the hand” said Tuchel.

Chelsea also had a late equaliser chalked off when Ben Chilwell was judged to have been offside.

Despite those disappointing moments, Tuchel was satisfied with the performance of his players overall.

He added, “We were unlucky, but there’s never any guarantee you’ll end up with a trophy. I think we would have deserved to win but we have to accept defeat. We have to take this pain forward”.

The Blues’ focus now switches to securing a Premier League top-four finish and winning the Champions League when they meet Manchester City on 29 May.

“We have two weeks in front of us where everything is in our hands,” said Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta.

“We are in a great opportunity to play in a final in the Champions League. We have to go with everything. This pain and disappointment we have to take it forward and change it and hopefully on 29 May we are all happy.”