Jose Mourinho celebrated on two fronts last night as Chelsea reached the Carling Cup final - with Andriy Shevchenko on the scoresheet.
Shevchenko ended his lean run in front of goal when he scored twice in the
first half against Wycombe, with Frank Lampard adding two after restart in the
semi-final second leg at Stamford Bridge.
Ukraine striker Shevchenko can now look forward to a first cup final for
Chelsea after the 5-1 aggregate win over the League Two minnows.
He needed time to adapt,' admitted Mourinho. 'If he can repeat what he did
- in terms of his movement, his contribution for the team, his effort to create
spaces, his work when we didn't have the ball and pressing opponents - he is
arriving at where we want him to arrive.'
Mourinho barely acknowledged Shevchenko after the defeat to Liverpool at the
weekend but the pair shook hands after the striker was taken off for Salomon
Kalou with six minutes remaining of the 4-0 win on the night.
The Chelsea boss explained why he ignored the striker at Anfield, adding: 'To
show when you are happy and when you are unhappy. Sometimes you kiss, sometimes
you kick. In this case I didn't kick, I ignored.
'It's simple. What I do with him is the same with every player, whether he is
£30million or £300,000, it doesn't matter.'
Shevchenko pounced on a stray pass by Tommy Doherty for his 22nd-minute opener
before Didier Drogba set up the second. It was his seventh and eighth of the
season for Chelsea.
Lampard skilfully beat goalkeeper Ricardo Batista and substitute Sam Stockley
for the third before finishing at the near post in stoppage time.
'I'm very happy to be in the final,' said Shevchenko on Sky Sports. 'It's
very important that the team played very well and I'm happy. The support for me
from the team and fans is very nice.'
Lampard added: 'He's taken a lot of stick, a bit too much. You've got to give
the man a lot of credit for his dignity because he hasn't come out and spoken
too much.'
Wycombe boss Paul Lambert remained proud of his League Two promotion hopefuls,
adding: 'We've got credibility from this, it shows they can compete when they
have big teams in front of them.'
