Joe Cole believes Mateo Kovacic will be ‘disappointed with himself’ for his part in Kamil Grosicki’s goal as Chelsea beat Hull City 2-1 to reach the FA Cup fifth round.
The Blues appeared to be cruising towards a comfortable victory as Michy Batshuayi and Fikayo Tomori netted to give the visitors a two-goal lead, but Grosicki’s 78th-minute strike set up a tense finish at the KCOM Stadium.
Willy Caballero had no chance as Grosicki’s free-kick deflected in off Kovacic – who peeled away from the rest of Chelsea’s wall – and Hull briefly had hope of mounting a comeback.
But Frank Lampard’s side managed to keep hold of their one-goal advantage to book their place in the next round.
Speaking after the game, Chelsea legend Cole highlighted Kovacic ‘excellent’ overall performance across the fourth-round tie.
However, Cole expects ‘people will be having words’ after the Croatian broke apart from the rest of the wall for Grosicki’s free-kick which could have cost Chelsea.
‘Frank has spoken about killers and discipline and Kovacic will be disappointed with himself,’ Cole said on BT Sport following Chelsea’s win.
‘It’s an error where you just leave the wall, it’s a freak goal but Azpilicueta after the game… I’m sure people will be having words with him.
‘I thought he was excellent today, Kovacic. But when you talk about moments when you’ve got to be professional, you’ve got to stand up and take one on the chin.
‘It’s a mistake you expect a younger player to make.’
Glenn Hoddle added: ‘The wall is there for a reason. You set the wall up for a reason – to be the wall!
‘The goalkeeper then reacts off whatever happens… you don’t break the wall. Players do do it and I scored in a cup final in 1981!
‘For me, that’s a massive mistake and something they’ll watch on the video and go, “Right, if you’re in the wall… okay you’ve jumped but you can’t make yourself half as big. You’re full on, you’ve got to stay square”.
‘That’s why you have a wall.’
Lampard said he sounded like a ‘broken record’ as he bemoaned Chelsea’s inability to kill off opposition teams.
‘The good news is we are in the hat, the bad news is that it is a small example of our season,’ the Chelsea manager said.
‘We had the game in our grasp and we play in nice patterns to finish them. But when they don’t come off you need to keep trying them. When we play well we are a good team but we don’t finish the game. We caused our own problems.
‘It is a hard one. We work hard in front of goal and it is not coming off for us. It is going to define you.
‘I feel like a broken record. We have the larger share of possession and shots on goal but not making those count.
‘There is more goals to be had and control of the game. You can’t bemoan your luck, such as a deflection with the Hull goal. It is frustrating.
‘We are making mistakes and allowing them to run two on two in the last few minutes.’
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