{"id":1521,"date":"2026-04-27T21:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=1521"},"modified":"2026-04-27T21:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:37:10","slug":"hes-a-fighter-mcfarlane-praises-chelsea-star-after-leeds-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=1521","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;He&#8217;s a fighter&#8217;: McFarlane praises Chelsea star after Leeds win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"content\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/NewsArticle\">\n<!-- google_ad_section_start --><\/p>\n<h6>News<span> \u00bb <\/span>Premier League news<span> \u00bb <\/span>Chelsea news<\/h6>\n<p class=\"articletimestamp\">April 26, 2026 19:43 GMT (UK), by <!-- Author Start -->Sri Aswin<!-- Author End -->\n<\/p>\n<h6>View Chelsea summer 2026 transfer targets<\/h6>\n<div style=\"float:right\">\n<figure>\n<p class=\"article_image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eyefootball.com\/imghold\/largestEnzoFernandez_2026.jpg\" title=\"Enzo Fernandez news\" alt=\"Enzo Fernandez news\" itemprop=\"image\"\/><\/p><figcaption><em itemprop=\"articleSection\">McFarlane on Fernandez<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><span itemprop=\"articleBody\"><br \/>\n<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-size:16px\">\n<strong>Chelsea interim manager <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Calum McFarlane<\/span><\/span>  has heaped praise on midfielder <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Enzo Fernandez<\/span><\/span>  following the FA Cup semi-final win over Leeds United at Wembley Stadium.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><!-- responsive_ad --><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size:16px; padding-top:10px\">\n<p>The Blues booked their spot in the FA Cup final against Manchester City with a hard-fought 1-0 win over the Whites earlier today. Midfielder <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Enzo Fernandez<\/span><\/span>  made the difference with the only goal of the game.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking after the result, McFarlane described the Argentine as a fighter, having gone through a tough phase in his career after the last international break due to his media comments.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8220;The most impressive thing about him is that he&#8217;s a fighter. You don&#8217;t have to have the perfect game plan in those moments; he will run and compete and that is often the deciding factor.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fernandez has been linked with a move to Real Madrid for some period of time and there continues to remain interest heading into the summer.<\/p>\n<p>Madrid have identified Rodri of Manchester City as their prime target. If he is unavailable, they could turn to Fernandez to reinforce their midfield.<br \/><!-- Article End --><\/p>\n<p><!-- google_ad_section_end --><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- newadv --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>(function(d, s, id) {\nvar js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)(0);\nif (d.getElementById(id)) return;\njs = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\njs.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\";\nfjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News \u00bb Premier League news \u00bb Chelsea news April 26, 2026 19:43 GMT (UK), by&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}