Cucurella looking forward to facing ‘legend’ Thiago Silva and praises Estevao | OneFootball

Marc Cucurella says he is looking forward to coming up against Thiago Silva when Chelsea face Fluminense in the semi-final of the Club World Cup.

Chelsea face the Brazilian side on Tuesday for a place in the final, and it will be a chance for Silva to play against the club he spent four years at.

Silva was 35 when he joined but played over 150 games for the Blues, winning the Champions League, Super Cup and Club World Cup.

On facing Silva, Cucurella said: “He’s a legend of football, a top player. He’s only played for big clubs and he texted me before the game (against Palmeiras) saying ‘let’s go, hopefully we can see you in a couple of days’.

“I texted him saying ‘let’s go’. We have the opportunity to play against him again and hopefully we can do good things and win this game and play in the final which is what we want to do.”

Chelsea have already faced two Brazilian sides in this competition and won one game but lost the other. Fluminense will be their third, and Cucurella was very complimentary about Brazilian teams.

“They have a very high level. They have showed in this tournament that they are going right until the final (stages). Now we have another tough match against Fluminense… I think they’re showing they’re very good. Every (Brazilian team) is making it to the final stages.

“We’ve played against two Brazilian teams so far and now we will face a third. They fight until the end. We’re happy to be in the next round and to have this experience of playing against the South American teams which isn’t very common. Overall, we’re enjoying this tournament.”

The Spaniard was directly up against Estevao when the Blues faced Palmeiras in the last round, and the pair had a great battle throughout the 90 minutes.

On the 18-year-old, Cucurella said: “It’s football, he tried to do his job, I tried to do my job. The most important thing is that we won and are going through. He had the chance to score a good goal so now hopefully he enjoys his holidays, can rest and will come back strong.”