After the disappointment of crashing out of the FA Cup to lowly Bradford
City on Saturday, Chelsea showed real character and resilience to
overcome the challenge of a Liverpool side also harbouring Wembley
dreams.For the second leg, with the first leg evenly balanced at 1-1, Jose Mourinho made nine changes to the side that had capitulated against Bradford, the one change that might have raised a few eye-brows being Kurt Zouma coming in for Gary Cahill, with the latter afforded a place on the bench.
At an atmospheric Stamford Bridge it was t be a frenetic start with the game being played at a fast pace, neither side were giving the other time on the ball and chances were at a premium. As the half progressed the fiery Diego Costa made his mark with a misjudged foot causing the Liverpool side to scream blue murder.
But if Chelsea were looking for a first half hero it was to be Thibaut Courtois with the young Belgian keeper producing two marvellous stops to deny Liverpool getting that vital first goal.
The second half was just as frantic although Chelsea were, more often-than-not pushing Liverpool back only for Simon Mignolet to emulate the heroics of his fellow Belgian, Courtois, between the Liverpool sticks. As the second half began to draw to an end the game was getting more and more open, it was end-to-end stuff but without the clear-cut chances coming.
If anything Chelsea were looking to be too intricate whilst Liverpool were wayward with their shooting, therefore it wasn`t too surprising the game was to go to extra time.
However, four minutes into the first period of extra time Chelsea got the breakthrough. A free kick awarded out wide, saw Willian float a delightful ball in for Branislav Ivanovic to head powerfully past Mignolet.
Liverpool, to go through, had to score twice now or once to send the game to a penalty shoot-out. But the Chelsea defence marshaled by John Terry and ably assisted by young Kurt Zouma, defended superbly and Chelsea had chances to double their lead, especially when Eden Hazard made a slalom run past three of four defenders before shooting just wide from the edge of the area,
Come the final whistle the players and coaching staff celebrated, it was, quite probably, just the tonic Chelsea needed after that defeat in the FA Cup on Saturday, but what anail-biting night it was!
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