Pedro heads Chelsea into FA Cup semi-finals
The Antonio Conte era at Chelsea is not done quite yet. It could easily have ended here at Leicester City,
in this FA Cup quarter-final played over two hours in the bitter cold. Defeat would have left Chelsea with just eight Premier League games left in this disappointing season, and only the pursuit of fourth place to play for.
But instead these Chelsea players dug deeper than you might expect, holding off a serious Leicester fightback to win the game 2-1 in extra time. Chelsea will now be in the FA Cup semi-finals next month, which means there is still hope of a trophy in May and still the prospect of a happier farewell to Conte, if that is what happens this summer.
There have been doubts about the spirit of these players but this was another strong response. It was a very different occasion from their noble defeat to Barcelona over two legs but, as in those games, they showed reserves of focus and skill, as well as the fact that uncertainty over Conte’s future will not unsettle them. Not when they have trophies and pride left to fight for. Take, for example, Alvaro Morata. For the first 41 minutes this felt like the continuation of Morata’s miserable 2018, not a break from it. Trusted with his first start of this month, and just his second in two, he started the game as if this was the last place he wanted to be, out in the bitter wind, getting kicked up in the air by Wes Morgan and Harry Maguire.
Chelsea were good enough to make chances but Morata never looked like he believed he would score. There was little conviction in a left-footed shot from a Marcos Alonso cross, and even less in a simple header from Willian’s ball in from the right. He stabbed another into the side netting from a tight angle, with no indication of any confidence.
All of which made it more surprising and more impressive when, with four minutes left of the first half, Morata turned all of these impressions on their head with a goal of brilliant assurance. Leicester had been breaking forward until Alonso stole the ball from Mahrez on the edge of the Chelsea box. Willian charged upfield, away from Albrighton, away from Ndidi, and played a pass behind the Leicester defence. Morata ran onto it, down the inside-left channel, artfully opening his body to clip the ball right footed past Kasper Schmeichel and into the net
It was the quality of finish you would expect from a £58m signing but then that is the last thing Morata has looked like over the last few months. Which shows that appearances can be deceptive and that sometimes in football it just takes one little detail or moment to make a big change. After Chelsea had conceded Jamie Vardy’s equaliser, Morata met a low cross from Fabregas with a flick of the inside of his right heel. He was offside and the ball hit the post, but it was still an instructive example of the transformative power of confidence.
The problem for Chelsea was that they were up against a striker whose own confidence has been running hot for years. Vardy was a constant threat, testing Chelsea with those incisive runs in behind. He shot wide after just two minutes and should have equalised earlier than he did, heading over from Ndidi’s cross seven minutes into the second half. But when there were just 15 minutes left, and Chelsea could dream of a return to Wembley, they were finally felled by the relentless Vardy. His first effort, from Mahrez’s cross from the right, was blocked, but after Willy Caballero saved from Vicente Iborra’s follow up, there was Vardy to bundle in the rebound.
That forced the tie to extra time but Chelsea did not buckle under the disappointment or the noise of the enthused home crowd. They continued to push, they created the better chances and eventually they broke through. Pedro, on for the brilliant Willian, bravely ran onto a Kante cross into the box. Kasper Schmeichel came too, but got his distances wrong, and Pedro was left with a simple header into an empty net. Chelsea hung on under some pressure at the end, setting up their semi and showing that they will not let this season fade into nothing before time.