Chelsea football club of England are through to the FA Cup final for the fourth time in five seasons after Hakim Ziyech scored a well-worked second-half goal against Manchester City on Saturday, April 17.
In Chelsea’s lineup, Kepa was once again named in goal while Ziyech and Werner came in for Christian Pulisic and Kai Havertz.
City meanwhile made eight alterations to his Man City side, with only Kevin De Bruyne, Ruben Dias and Rodrigo retaining their places from the midweek win over Dortmund.
At the beginning, Chelsea exploited space behind City’s high line twice in quick succession as Ziyech had the ball in the net from Werner’s pass but the German was offside before a Ben Chilwell cross was cleared from inside the six-yard box.
At the 10th minute, Kepa made a comfortable save from Gabriel Jesus.
Unlike what many would have thought, Chelsea were playing well .
Mason Mount twice carried the ball forward from midfield with purpose and twice Fernandinho avoided a yellow card for fouls on Mount.
Werner then shot from a tight angle and was denied by a crucial Aymeric Laporte block shortly after the half-hour, before James curled wide from range.
The first half was ended with Fernandinho heading wide.
A couple of minutes after the restart of the second half, star player De Bruyne was injured and replaced by Phil Foden.
With 10 minutes of the second period played, Werner playing on the cusp of City’s high line got the precise pass he was looking for from Mount.
Steffen raced out of his goal made a simple square pass to Ziyech, who slid the ball into the empty net.
Not too long after the goal, Chilwell’s long pass found Ziyech but Steffen blocked the Algerian’s shot.
With 20 minutes left, Ruben Dias headed a presentable opening well over before Tuchel immediately made his first change, bringing Pulisic on for the excellent Mount.
Thiago Silva who felt pains in his back region was replaced by Kurt Zouma with three minutes left on the clock.
An additional five minutes were added and Pulisic scored, only to be denied by the offside flag.
Chelsea held on for a victory well deserved.
Thomas Tuchel will be the first German to manage in an FA Cup final, and he can enjoy a deserved first success over Pep Guardiola.
The Blues will now play Leicester City or Southampton in the FA Cup final on Saturday 15 May!
Olalekan Ajimoti – Blogger, Content Writer, and Digital Marketer helping brands and retailers build 8-figure e-commerce since 2016.
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