• FA Cup

I needed those goals - Torres

Striker Fernando Torres admitted he was hugely relieved to end his goalscoring drought as Chelsea booked their place in the FA Cup semi-finals with victory over Leicester City.

Torres had gone 25 hours and 41 minutes without scoring, but netted a second-half brace as Roberto Di Matteo continued his impressive start to life as Chelsea manager as the Blues cruised to a 5-2 victory at Stamford Bridge.

Early goals from Gary Cahill and Salomon Kalou put Chelsea on course for victory before two goals from Torres put the result beyond their Championship opponents. Jermaine Beckford and Ben Marshall scored consolation goals for Leicester, but Raul Meireles netted in the last minute to seal an impressive victory.

Torres maintained he had not played badly during his barren run, but admitted it was a relief to finally find the net for the first time since October.

''I needed those goals. I've been working so hard to get them," Torres told ESPN. "Maybe the job of a striker is to score goals and if you don't do it people think you're playing badly.

"But the support has been here and I feel the confidence of the manager [Roberto Di Matteo] now. We have some important games coming.''

Di Matteo was quick to praise his goalshy striker and believes Torres has been rewarded for his hard work in training.

''Every win gives the players confidence," Di Matteo said. "You can see they have more confidence. I thought Fernando had a terrific game, he fought very hard for the team and managed to score a couple of goals too. It's wonderful for him.

''I have a lot of belief in him and the other players. He works so hard and in life if you do that you will get rewarded for it. I really wanted us to keep a clean sheet. We didn't manage to do that but I'm very pleased with the performance. I'm trying to get the players to perform as best they can but I'm very relaxed about it.''

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