Chelsea are through to the Carabao Cup semi-finals despite an underwhelming performance against Bournemouth on Wednesday night. Goals from Willian and Alvaro Morata saw the Blues come away with a 2-1 victory and winning the game right at the death thanks to their record signing. They will now face Arsenal over two legs for a place at Wembley.
Antonio Conte stuck by his word and gave a chance to a few fringe players in this cup tie with Willy Caballero, Ethan Ampadu, Kenedy, Danny Drinkwater and Michy Batshuayi all starting. Ampadu had a particularly good game and was voted Man of the Match by the Chelsea fans for his work at the centre of back three. It was Kenedy who created the first goal with an accurate back heel that cut open the Bournemouth defence. Cesc Fabregas ran on to the pass and squared it to Willian who had the simplest of tap-ins to put Chelsea 1-0 up after just 13 minutes.
After being on the receiving end of a late challenge by Ampadu, Jermain Defoe was forced off through injury and was replaced by Jordon Ibe. Both Ibe and his strike partner, Lys Mousset, had chances for the away side but neither of them could find a way past Willy Caballero in goal. After the break, the Cherries had a dominant spell and were on the front foot for much of the second half. Chances came and went for the away side and it seemed a matter of when and not if they would find an equaliser. The introduction of Eden Hazard and Tiemoue Bakayoko didn’t sway things in Chelsea’s favour and Bournemouth got their goal in the 90th minute. Junior Stanislas rolled it across for Dan Gosling on the edge of the area who curled the ball into the far side of the goal through a crowd of bodies. Caballero had no chance. It seemed as though both sides would be heading for another unwanted 30 minutes but the Blues weren’t in the mood for that.
Straight from the kick-off, Eden Hazard latched on to Davide Zappacosta’s pass and drew a host of Bournemouth defenders to him. Morata ran into the space those defenders had left and another exquisite back heel from Hazard set the Spaniard up to poke under Artur Boruc and win the game. Both Gosling and Morata were booked for their celebrations by referee Lee Mason. As if you’re not expected to be excited and passionate if you score a late goal in a cup tie. Gosling celebrated with the away fans while Morata put the ball up his shirt to celebrate his wife’s pregnancy. It was even more ludicrous when it turned out that booking for Morata was his fifth of the season and he’s now suspended for the game against Everton on Saturday.
Anyway, Chelsea are through and that’s all that matters. They were joined by Bristol City after they score a late winner of their own to defeat Manchester United and dump the holders out. They will face Manchester City in the semi-finals while Chelsea play Arsenal. The first leg on the 8th of January will be at Stamford Bridge and the two sides will meet again for the second leg at the Emirates two weeks later. They meet in the league a week before the first leg so they’ll be well accustomed to each other by the time the semi-final comes around.
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