There were mixed emotions for Carlo Ancelotti following tonight's exit from the Carling Cup.
The first emotion was disappointment, as we lost 4-3 to Newcastle inside Stamford Bridge, but the second was pride as he watched a 10-man Blues side battle back from 3-1 down to equalize.
'I am disappointed for the result, this is normal,' explained the Italian, 'but I am happy for the performance, absolutely happy.
'We had a fantastic reaction when we went down 3-1, playing 10 against 11.
'We showed good spirit, good personality, especially from the young players and this is good for us.
'This was a competition for the young players, they needed to have experience and they had a fantastic experience tonight.
'It was very difficult but at the end we can say that we are happy with the performance of our players and that's it.'
It was a testing night for Chelsea. Having put out a young side, Ancelotti then had to watch as Gael Kakuta, Yossi Benayoun and Salomon Kalou all picked up injuries.
'We had three problems,' said Ancelotti. 'Kakuta had a problem on his back, Benayoun on his calf and Kalou had a tight muscle.'
But even with that in mind, the Italian had no regrets about playing the side he did.
'This [Carling Cup] is not our priority, we have a very important game on the weekend and I wanted to rest some players.
'This was one reason. The second was because we wanted to give our young players an opportunity to improve.
'I am not so disappointed. We had the ability to look at players with a lot of character, this is good for us. In the future we can count on these players.
'I want to judge the match, not my players. We did our best. We are disappointed with the result obviously. We conceded four goals. But the performance was good.'
Another man who was quietly impressed by the comeback was Newcastle United manager Chris Hughton, who said: 'We had the best opportunities in the game to kill the game off but they came back.
'The equalizer was a soft penalty but at that stage we were heading for extra time. Both sides could have done without that and fortunately for us we stopped it.
'This speaks volumes for the changing room and the players I have in that changing room. Hopefully it will give us a momentum to go into the next few games,' added Hughton.
The first emotion was disappointment, as we lost 4-3 to Newcastle inside Stamford Bridge, but the second was pride as he watched a 10-man Blues side battle back from 3-1 down to equalize.
'I am disappointed for the result, this is normal,' explained the Italian, 'but I am happy for the performance, absolutely happy.
'We had a fantastic reaction when we went down 3-1, playing 10 against 11.
'We showed good spirit, good personality, especially from the young players and this is good for us.
'This was a competition for the young players, they needed to have experience and they had a fantastic experience tonight.
'It was very difficult but at the end we can say that we are happy with the performance of our players and that's it.'
It was a testing night for Chelsea. Having put out a young side, Ancelotti then had to watch as Gael Kakuta, Yossi Benayoun and Salomon Kalou all picked up injuries.
'We had three problems,' said Ancelotti. 'Kakuta had a problem on his back, Benayoun on his calf and Kalou had a tight muscle.'
But even with that in mind, the Italian had no regrets about playing the side he did.
'This [Carling Cup] is not our priority, we have a very important game on the weekend and I wanted to rest some players.
'This was one reason. The second was because we wanted to give our young players an opportunity to improve.
'I am not so disappointed. We had the ability to look at players with a lot of character, this is good for us. In the future we can count on these players.
'I want to judge the match, not my players. We did our best. We are disappointed with the result obviously. We conceded four goals. But the performance was good.'
Another man who was quietly impressed by the comeback was Newcastle United manager Chris Hughton, who said: 'We had the best opportunities in the game to kill the game off but they came back.
'The equalizer was a soft penalty but at that stage we were heading for extra time. Both sides could have done without that and fortunately for us we stopped it.
'This speaks volumes for the changing room and the players I have in that changing room. Hopefully it will give us a momentum to go into the next few games,' added Hughton.
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