The Tigers were well beaten by Liam Rosenior’s Blues
Barry Cooper Hull City correspondent
22:47, 13 Feb 2026
John Lundstram looks on after Chelsea scored their fourth goal against Hull City(Image: George Wood/Getty Images)
Sergej Jakirovic says he’s pleased Hull City didn’t ‘surrender’ against Premier League Chelsea, after seeing his side beaten 4-0 in the FA Cup on Friday night.
A much-changed Tigers team held their own and had chances in the first half, before Pedro Neto scored the first of his three goals before half-time.
Neto added another early in the second half from a corner, which slipped through Dillon Phillips’ legs before Estevao tapped in from Liam Delap, who marked his return to the MKM Stadium with a hat-trick of assists. Neto completed the scoring with just under 20 minutes left, to cap a terrific individual performance.
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Despite the emphatic nature of the scoreline, Jakirovic was impressed by his side’s spirit, and they could have got on the scoresheet late on with Lewis Koumas hitting the post, and Joe Gelhardt’s ball from a tight angle fizzing through the six-yard box.
Attention for City now returns to the promotion race, with the Tigers facing QPR at the MKM Stadium next Saturday, the first of seven games in 21 days.
“It’s difficult because we played against Chelsea,” he told Hull Live. “We gave everything, we were in the first half, especially defensively very, very strong.
“We had some situations from counter-attacks, maybe bad decisions in some moments. We had some chances there as well. We should score one goal, I think. Chelsea had some chances, and with Neto, this is his individual quality. He scored perfectly.
“Maybe in the second half we tried to be more aggressive, to push more, but then I think that we conceded the second goal from a corner, which was very cheap. This is something that we prepared for, but it’s also their quality.
“Then, with the third and fourth goal, we lost some balance in some situations, and they will use that immediately. This is also Chelsea’s quality. Towards the end, I think that we deserved one goal.
“We had a few nice chances, and I said to Liam (Rosenior) that we deserved the goal, and of course, he agreed.
“Congratulations to my players, maybe if we play in the next games like this, with this passion, energy, intensity, that we are compact there, that we are tactically good, that we can be much higher in the table in the Championship.
“We didn’t surrender there. This is very important, and there is no collapse. After every goal, it’s very important that we have discipline until the end of the game, and I think this team showed that in every game that we’re playing till till the end.”
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