Chelsea defender Gary Cahill has heaped praise on teammate N'Golo Kante following his man-of-the-match performance during this evening's 1-0 FA Cup win over Manchester United.

Kante put in a typically energetic display to dominate the midfield at Stamford Bridge, capping off his performance with the only goal of the game to fire Chelsea into the semi-finals of the competition.

United were forced to play the majority of the match with 10 men following a red card for Ander Herrera, but Cahill was pleased with the "professional" nature of his side's win.

"We keep the momentum going. We dug in and gave a good account of ourselves. It was professional from us, we controlled the game when we needed to," he told BBC Sport.

"[The red card] turned it in our favour. I've not seen it so I am not sure. But there were fouls leading up to that so it was possibly silly to go in like that. We complained as we thought they were going in on Eden [Hazard].

"N'Golo [Kante] has been fantastic. You saw what he did last season but he has kicked on again this season. He is so important, especially to us at the back."

Kante has now scored two goals for Chelsea, both of which have come against United.