Barkley: 'Eden is magical'

Eden Hazard scored the only goal of the game on Wednesday night, as Chelsea advanced to the Carabao Cup semi-finals at the expense of Bournemouth, and after the match, team mate Barkley was not shy in expressing his admiration for the forward. Barkley started the match, but left the field after 61 minutes to be replaced by Hazard, who was the all important star man once more for the 'Blues'. 

In an interview with 'Sky Sports' after the match, Barkley spoke wax-lyrical about his team mate, explaining: "The way we were playing, you could see we had the belief that a goal was going to come. When Eden got that goal, he can produce magic moments like that. Credit to him and the team who got stuck in. He's playing really well. He's up there with the best in the world. He can produce goals like that out of nothing and to play with a player like that is fantastic."

Barkley continued: "He's relaxed, but once he's on the training pitch he's magical. He plays with enjoyment. He scores goals and creates goals. He's laid-back, but on game day he's ready to make things happen."

Chelsea's reward for advancing to the final four, was a draw against London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. Midfielder Barkley is under no illusions of how hard it will be for Chelsea to eliminate their rivals, who won the first battle of the campaign 3-1 at Wembley last month. Nevertheless, the Liverpudlian is excited for the next round, he concluded: "Tottenham are a good side but we come into it with confidence and knowing what we need to do to reach the final. That will be in the back of our minds [Chelsea's defeat at Wembley] because there are our rivals and we want to beat our rivals. It's going to be a very exciting game."