Lecester 0-1 Chelsea: Nigeria Descent Ross Barkley Sends Chelsea Into FA Cup Semis

Lecester 0-1 Chelsea: Nigeria Descent Ross Barkley Sends Chelsea Into FA Cup Semis

By Admin

Nigeria descent, Ross Barkley stepped off the bench to score the all-important goal as Chelsea beat Leicester 1-0 to book a place in the FA Cup semifinals on Sunday evening.

Super Eagles midfielder, Wilfred Ndidi had an impressive performance for his side in their 0-1 Emirate Cup quarterfinal loss.

The England international turned in a Willian cross on the 63rd minute, and it proved important as Frank Lampard's side joined Arsenal and Manchester United in the last four.

Chelsea made quite a shaky start at the King Power Stadium as Jamie Vardy and Youri Tielemans both went close to finding the net in the opening three minutes.

Willy Caballero had to be called into action on the fourth minute as Harvey Barnes' cross, which was intended for Vardy, luckily fell onto his path and he made a stunning one-hand save.

The hosts kept knocking and came close once again on the 14th minute as Chilwell's free-kick into the box found Ndidi, but his header went straight into the hands of the keeper.

The Argentine, who was the busier of the two custodians, was again called to the rescue on the 20th minute, which was as a result of a misplaced pass from Billy Gilmour, allowing Tielemans to sprint off and make a nice attempt.

The visitors grew into the match and they had their first sight of goal on the half-hour mark as Mason Mount made a sensational pass to find Pulisic, who took a few strides before unleashing a shot goalward, forcing Schmeichel into a world-class save.

Both teams exchanged blow after blow in the remaining quarter an hour of the first half, even though the hosts created more clear chances to open the scoring.

There were no goals though as they went into the break still tied at 0-0.

Frank Lampard then made a triple-change at half time, bringing in Cesar Azpilicueta for Reece James, Mason Mount for Mateo Kovacic, and Billy Gilmour for Ross Barkley.

The substitutions seemed to inject some new energy into the match as the Blues hugely improved in the second period.

Pulisic was the first to have sight of goal on the 53rd minute but Schmeichel made a huge save to deny the American, even though the offside flag went up almost immediately.

Two minutes later Tammy Abraham had the ball in the back of the net, but his effort could not stand as he was correctly flagged for offside.

The hosts also went on a number of attacks, with Vardy coming closest on the 60th minute, but his cross dinked off the top of the crossbar before landing on the top of the net.

After knocking on Leicester's door for a while, Chelsea finally got the opener on the 63rd minute following a well-worked move involving Azpilicueta and Willian on the right wing, before the Brazilian delivered a perfect cross that was coolly slotted in by Barkley.

Leicester put the visitors under intense pressure in the last minutes of the match, but could not find the equalizer as Chelsea held on to pick the third semi-final ticket.

They will be disappointed they did not make their early possession count, and once again, it's another FA Cup exit against Chelsea whom they've lost all nine of their meetings against in the competition.

Chelsea draw Ighalo's Manchester United in the semifinals of the 2020 Emirate FA Cup at the Wembley Stadium on July 18th.