CAPITAL GAINS
Arsenal and Chelsea reach semis
Maurizio Sarri stood on the touchline, pacing, gesturing frantically and chewing anxiously on those cigarette butts. For the first half, such angst seemed entirely for show.
This appeared, for all intents and purposes, a pipe and slippers occasion for Sarri on an evening his side dismantled theireir Czech opponents by strikingriking four times inside halflf an hour to rack up whathat appeared to be ann unassailable lead.
Chelsea were 4-1 up at half- time, sailing into the Europa League final four against Eintract Frankfurt and the only question seemed to bee how many more theyey would add.
Then Slavia Pragueague rediscovered the spiritrit that brought them to thehe quarter-quarterfinals. They tweaked their game-plan and in the space of nine minutes, Chelsea’s runaway train screeched to a startling halt.
Slavia owed their fightback to Petr Sevcik, who caught out Kepa arrizabalaga at his near post with a low strike and then planted a stunning, rising strike into the top corner. By now, it was 4-3 on the night and Slavia had 35 minutes to score twice and complete the most extraordinary of comebacks.
in this remarkable week of European football, the improbable suddenly seemed feasible. Sarri’s agitation grew on the touchline. in the manner of Mauricio Pochettino and Pep Guardiola the evening before, he whipped off his jacket and launched it towards his backroom staff in disgust.
Sarri said: ‘ as usual in the last two months, we started very badly in the second half. it’s a big problem. at half-time i told them that the target was to start with the same application and attention in the second half, but we didn’t.’
He added with a wry smile: ‘i can try without going into the dressing room at half-time if that will solve the problem.’
Slavia were a team transformed. They tore down the Chelsea left, as Jaromir zmrhal crossed and Sevcik seemed sure to land his hat-trick but slipped. Had he scored, the smart money was on an away win.
it was by now a riotous affair and home supporters sat with gawping faces and shaking heads. ‘i have never seen something like Slavia in the last 20 years,’ Sarri said. ‘The number of accelerations, the metres in high speed, the running.’
The tension rose when Sarri was forced to replace talisman Eden Hazard with Willian. The Belgian was brutally targeted from the first minute by his marker ondrej Kudela and the tough tackles came thick and fast. His exit
emboldened Slavia. Substitute Miroslav Stoch blazed over and Chelsea’s anxiety was encapsulated when Arrizabalaga earned a booking for time-wasting. He then flapped at a cross and David Luiz cynically used his arm to punch away a Slavia counter-attack.
So for Sarri’s Chelsea, even forward steps can feel like a couple backwards. By the end, this was so haphazard, so imperfect that Sarri was halfway down the touchline issuing instructions to his team as the full-time whistle blew.
Yet they remain on course. Sarri’s instructions were to return his club to the Champions League and he is now only three games away from securing the target by winning the Europa League.
For those who endured the smash-and-grab victory in the first leg in Prague last week, the firsthalf blitz was surprising.
Chelsea’s opening goal was splendid, featuring one- touch football from Cesar Azpilicueta and Olivier Giroud before Pedro clipped over the dive of Ondrej Kolar. The second came before the 10-minute mark and it was accompanied by a dash of slapstick.
The Slavia defence was perilously high — a baffling feature of the first half — and Giroud released Hazard down the left, who slid the ball across goal. Pedro appeared certain to strike his second but tapped against the post from two yards out. It was probably the worst miss of his career but fortune favoured Chelsea and the ball rebounded off the woodwork and against the face of Simon Deli into his own goal.
In the 17th minute, it was N’Golo Kante’s turn to expose the high line, threading a pass in behind for Pedro who raced through and teed up Giroud for the third.
For Slavia, a poor start threatened to become a humiliation but the visiting fans remained defiant. Clearly, they knew something the rest of the Stamford Bridge did not. They provided the soundtrack and went crazy when captain Tomas Soucek drifted in unmarked and headed into the corner from a set-piece to make it 3-1.
The Slavia backroom staff and substitutes also rose but no sooner had Slavia earned a foothold than Chelsea’s foot was back down on the accelerator. Hazard played in Emerson, whose low cross evaded Giroud but Pedro pounced at the far post for his second of the evening with 18 minutes of the first half still to play.
Game over? Not a bit of it.