It was a tough afternoon for Chelsea winger Raheem Sterling yesterday.
While Chelsea were able to beat Leicester City 4-2 to reach the semi-finals of the FA Cup, Raheem Sterling had a game to forget.
The 29-year-old missed a penalty, wasted another golden opportunity to score and took one of the worst free-kicks Stamford Bridge has ever seen. However, while Sterling was met by some boos when he was taken off in the second half, Gary Lineker has said on The Rest Is Football podcast that a lot of Chelsea fans still clapped him off the pitch and drowned out all of the negative noise.
The England international has been given a lot of support since full-time. Team-mate Thiago Silva responded to one of his Instagram posts with the message: “We love you bro.”
Chelsea are now set to play against Sterling’s former club Manchester City in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.
Raheem Sterling still got applauded in Leicester win
While some chose to boo Sterling after his horror show yesterday, plenty of Chelsea supporters still applauded him, according to Lineker, who was at the game.
On the reception Sterling got, the pundit said: “I will say when Sterling was eventually substituted and when he first did it and he started to walk towards the tunnel, there were quite a few boos. But then it was completely drowned out by applause for Raheem Sterling.”
Did Raheem Sterling deserve to get the boos he got?
So it appears that not everyone at Stamford Bridge yesterday decided to boo Sterling, but he still got some and it is hard to ignore.
Was it warranted? Not really. Of course, it was not his best game, but this is not a player who has not been trying this season and has decided to give up.
There have been some positive moments, with the England star having scored two goals against Premier League and European champions Manchester City, for example.
Sterling obviously has to do better, with Chelsea legend Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink highlighting how poor his finishing can be at times. However, we are not at a point where fans should be turning on the attacker.