DBasia.news – Chelsea defeated Tottenham Hotspur in the second leg of League Cup. At Stamford Bridge, Friday (25/1), The Blues won 4-2 in the penalty shootout after the goal aggregate equals 2-2. Defeated 0-1 at Wembley, Chelsea won 2-1 at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea sent their best squad with no big change, they just placed Emerson as the starter replacing Marcos Alonso. Using the 4-3-3 scheme of Maurizio Sarri, Chelsea got overwhelmed by Spurs energic performance.
Luckily, Chelsea could steal the dominance at 27′. N’Golo Kante kicked the ball from 20 meters when the after the corner kick. Paulo Gazzaniga couldn’t anticipate Kante’s kick. Chelsea won 1-0.
The injury in Chelsea keeps on going. At 33′, Ben Davies couldn’t continue the match and Danny Rose substituted him. Davies is under the treatment with Harry Kane and Dele Alli.
Five minutes later, Chelsea added the dominance by the goal from Eden Hazard. The Belgium wing-forward responded to Cesar Azpilicueta’s passing and added the score to be 2-0. The score persisted until the break.
Spurs must attack to score the goal and they didn’t need a long time in the second round. Fernando Llorente as Kane’s successor headed the ball from Rose’s cross passing.
Thanks to the airball duel, Llorente won it and went to Kepa Arrizabalaga’s goal. 1-2, Spurs followed the dominance.
The duel became equal after Spurs scored the goal. Chelsea still dominated with 54 percent ball possession. But, Spurs are also dangerous when they did the counter-attack.
After the goal from Llorente, both teams won’t waste the chance until the normal time and additional round ended. The match continued to the penalty shootout.
At that moment, two Spurs players Eric Dier and Lucas Moura failed to execute the penalty to be the goal. Dier’s kick went far and Kepa countered Kepa’s kick. Meanwhile, four Chelsea executors: Willian, Azpilicueta, Jorginho, and David Luiz did it really well. Chelsea won with a 4-2 score in the penalty shootout.
Chelsea will play against Man City in the final at Wembley on February 24th. Maurizio Sarri is the sixth manager of Chelsea that could bring the club to the final round.
He is also the fourth manager who did that in the debut season after Gianluca Vialli, Jose Mourinho, and Avram Grant.
Squad Composition:
Chelsea (4-3-3): Kepa Arrizabalaga; Cesar Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Antonio Rudiger, Emerson; Jorginho, N’Golo Kante, Ross Barkley (Mateo Kovacic 81′); Pedro (Willian 76′), Eden Hazard, Olivier Giroud.
Substitute Players: Willy Caballero, Ethan Ampadu, Marcos Alonso, Mateo Kovacic, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Willian, Lucaz Piazon.
Manager: Maurizio Sarri
Tottenham Hotspur (4-2-3-1): Paulo Gazzaniga; Serge Aurier, Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen, Ben Davies (Danny Rose 33′); Eric Dier, Harry Winks; Moussa Sissoko (Davinson Sanchez 80′), Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela; Fernando Llorente (Lucas Moura 68′).
Substitute Players: Hugo Lloris, Danny Rose, Davinson Sanchez, Kyle Walker-Peters, Oliver Skipp, Georges-Kevin N’Koudou, Lucas Moura.
Manager: Mauricio Pochettino