Rudiger on chance of staying at SW6: I don’t want to go deep into things. There was a chance...
By Paul Lagan at Wembley Stadium
Chelsea centre-back Toni Rudiger has revealed that there was a possibility that the FA Cup final defeat against Liverpool yesterday, need not have been his last in a Blue shirt.
German international Rudiger will sign for Real Madrid at the end of the season, having let his contract expire at SW6.
But speaking post-match in the bowels of Wembley Stadium, he said: of his time at the Bridge: "It’s been five years with ups and downs as normal. There were a lot of positive things, but that’s why I’m even more frustrated (at the final defeat) because I wanted to have a different ending."
Talking about how much he has given the club in that time, he said: "It’s not only about one side, it’s about both sides. Chelsea have been great to me and I have been great for Chelsea.
"I am very, very thankful, me, my family. I became a man here. My kids were born here and everything. London and especially Chelsea will always be special to me."
But when Capital Football asked if he could have stayed at the Bridge, he confessed: "I don’t want to go deep into things. There was a chance but sanctions is not the problem."
Of the game, which Chelsea lost 6-5 in a penalty shootout after drawing 0-0 after extra time, Rudiger said: "It’s the same, I think it was a good game just like the Carabao Cup Final (where Chelsea lost 11-10 in another penalty shootout with Liverpool).
"We had chances, they had chances. But at the end of the day we know that penalties are always a lottery. We lost. "At the end of the day it’s about winning, it’s not about next season. The game was about today and it was there to take. Unfortunately we didn’t."
What defines being luck or unlucky, Capital Football asked?
Rudiger said: "It’s always difficult to say, whether we are lucky or unlucky. Personally for myself it’s the third time (I have lost a final) so you can’t always say unlucky, unlucky, unlucky. "It’s a difficult one to take for myself. These are questions sometimes we don’t an answer for it. I don’t have an answer for it."
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