Kante: Chelsea Not Favourites To Win Europa League

By Joshua Walters

N'golo Kante has insisted that Chelsea are not favourites to win this season's Europa League, labelling the side as 'underdogs'.

The London-based club defeated Slavia Prague 4-3  at Stamford Bridge on Thursday to complete a 5-3 aggregate victory over the Czech Republic side and advance to the semi final stage of the competition.

Kante, who won the World Cup with France last summer, admits Chelsea have been struggling to deal with pressure in games this season but was happy to see the Blues advance and still be in contention for silverware this campaign.

"It's just something that has happened many times this season and something we need to manage a bit better," he told reporters after the match.

 "We still have to work on that.

"The most important thing was to qualify.

"We’ll go into the semi-final with confidence and we hope to qualify for the final. I think it’s important to be in the semi-finals, it was our target.

"We played a good game, it was difficult in the second half but we got what we wanted and we are happy for that. I think [Slavia] worked very well.

"They tried to push more and scored two beautiful goals. And after that, we managed to hold on to keep the win.

"We can make the season beautiful by winning the Europa League.

"That’s the only title we can win now, so it would be great to win the Europa League."

Chelsea's qualification to the semi finals will see them clash with Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Frankfurt.

The last time Chelsea won the Europa League was in 2013 when they defeated Benfica 2-1, with current first team regulars, Cesar Azpilicueta and David Luiz, part of that historic triumph.