The Italian coach had sparked speculation about his future at Stamford Bridge after declaring that the lead-up to last weekend's game against Everton had been the worst 48 hours of his tenure at the club, but was thankful for the backing of supporters as the Blues won 3-1 against the League One side in Wales on Tuesday (16.12.25) to book a place in the semi-finals.

Maresca said: "I'm just happy, we're going to play another semi-final and I think it's what the fans deserve.

"It was a great moment, I appreciate, always thankful. In some moments when you don't win games, they have been not happy, but it's normal. But overall, the fans have always been there.

"These are the kind of games that I fall in love even more with the players because you cannot imagine how easy it is to slip, to slide, because they are tricky games.

"Every season there are teams that they lost against, you know, League Two or League One. You need to pay attention, you need to do the right things."

Maresca explained that he had not spoken to the Chelsea hierarchy about his comments.

He said: "No, as I said yesterday, the day after Everton, I started to prepare Cardiff. Focus on Cardiff.

"Now I just said on the bus I will watch [weekend opponents] Newcastle and I didn't speak with anyone. I didn't speak, no it's OK.

"I always said that I've been happy since day one. So it's not that tonight I'm not happy. I'm happy.

"Now we have three hours to arrive to Cobham [Chelsea's training ground] and I will watch two Newcastle games.

"There is no time. Time is for the players. For us as a staff, we're going to be focused on the next one, that is Newcastle, so we're going to prepare."