Cukurelia made an appointment with former Blues defender Thiago Silva in New York before Chelsea advanced to the semi-finals. The Spanish international revealed that he communicated via text message with 40-year-old Chelsea legend Thiago Silva, who currently plays for their Club World Cup rival Fruminense.
Kukurelia said: "He is a legend in football, a top player. He has only played for a big club and texted me before the game and said 'Come on, I hope we can meet in a few days', and I replied to him. We play against him, hoping to have a good performance, winning this game, and getting to the final is the result we want. We have seen some of their games, they have a lot of good players, and they play very determinedly. They can make it to the semi-finals because they do a good job. It will be a close match."
"Now we will have another tough game, against Fruminense. We will face Thiago Silva, and I think it will be great. But now we have to be well Rest, prepare for the game, face it at its best. I think they are doing well and everyone is in the final stage. We have played against two Brazilian teams and now face the third one. They will fight to the last minute. "
" At this moment, we won't think about fatigue. Even if we are tired, we want to enjoy this moment. It's an important opportunity to make us proud of our work and fight for Chelsea. We don't think about that now. We have the opportunity, we will focus 100% on it. If we win, everyone will be happy, we have a good chance to make it to the final, hoping to win this championship. We can talk to the head coach after that, hope he will be happy."