Mauricio Pochettino felt Tottenham "dominated the game" against Chelsea, but conceded the opposition were superior in front of goal as the Blues ran out 4-2 winners in the FA Cup semi-final.
Chelsea had five shots on target and netted four times at Wembley on Saturday, with Willian grabbing a brace – one from the penalty spot – while Eden Hazard came off the bench to score and Nemanja Matic's 80th-minute strike was the best of the bunch.
Spurs had twice hit back through Harry Kane and Dele Alli, but failed to make their superiority count as the White Hart Lane club not only missed out on an FA Cup final, but also suffered a psychological blow in the Premier League title race.
Final step remains beyond brittle Spurs
"Congratulations to Chelsea. We dominated the game, but they were more clinical than us," Pochettino told BBC Sport. "I feel proud, we were fantastic in the way we played and in our philosophy. They had five shots and scored four goals and we score only two.
"It is important to speak about the moments of the game. We fought a lot. We tried and scored. The penalty for me was a soft penalty or was not a penalty. To go into the changing room 2-1 down was difficult and again we played well in the second half and scored, but then they came back."
Full-time at Wembley. pic.twitter.com/EfEU0pJwRO
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) April 22, 2017
Pochettino's men trail Chelsea by four points with six games remaining and travel to Crystal Palace on Wednesday with their title dream still alive.
"Only now we can look forward. We are four points behind them and we will try to win our next game," added the Spurs boss. "I am not worried. The team is strong, we are focused. We were competing with one of the best teams in Europe. Did we deserve more? Sure, but that is football."Now we will try to be calm, watch the game again and try to improve. We are in a process of trying to improve, if we cannot win the FA Cup this season we will try again next season.
"We have another difficult game coming up against Crystal Palace. It is a tough league to play, but we are okay. For sure now we are disappointed but that is football."