Match report: Chelsea 4-2 Leicester
I’ll leave you with Jacob Steinberg’s report from Stamford Bridge, and don’t forget to join Tim for the big one at Old Trafford. Bye!
Chelsea reaction: 'Palmer's IQ is amazing'
Cole Palmer
It was hard work. We know what Leicester are like with the manager Enzo (who worked with Palmer at Man City) – they’re a top team who play really good football. We’re delighted to go back to Wembley.
I just try and help the team as much as possible – in tough moments and good moments. That’s what I’m there to do, that’s what I try to do.
I’m looking forward to joining up with England and seeing the lads. It’s my second time with the group. Let’s see what the week brings.
Carney Chukwuemeka
Yeah I enjoyed that. The coach said, ‘Express yourself’, and I think that’s what I did. I’ve gotta thank my boy Cole for the one-two! Before the game he said he’d assist me if I come on, so fair play to him. His IQ is amazing, he knows the game – as soon as I played it to him and made the run I knew he’d fine me no matter what.
It’s a big win. We’ve set ourselves a target to win a trophy this season and now we’re in the last four. We have to keep going, keep building as a team. But we’re getting there, definitely.
The best is yet to come. Follow the build-up to Man Utd v Liverpool with the great Tim de Lisle.
Full time: Chelsea 4-2 Leicester
Chelsea are into the last four after a highly entertaining game that included six goals, including one of the great own goals, a red card, a missed penalty and a near mutiny.
Gusto was involved, as he has been all day in attack, playing a square pass to Madueke 30 yards from goal. He held off Justin, zig-zagged past Akgun and curled a lovely shot over Stolarczyk.
Edit: having seen the replay, Madueke’s shot took a big deflection off the sliding Justin, which is why the ball looped over Stolarczyk. Even so, the footwork to create the chance was lovely.
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GOAL! Chelsea 4-2 Leicester (Madueke 90+8)
Noni Madueke seals it with a wonderful individual goal!
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90+7 min Leicester have been pinned back ever since Doyle was sent off in the 73rd minute. That was the key moment of the game, which came with Leicester on top and Chelsea threatening to unravel.
90+6 min Coady is booked for pulling back Palmer. We’re done here.
90+4 min Cole Palmer has been relatively quiet today. He’s scored one, made one and should have had a second goal from the penalty spot. He oozes class and, more importantly, he knows how to use it to manufacture goals and assists.
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Jackson moved the ball infield from the left to Chukwuemeka, who flicked it to Palmer on the edge of the area and set off. Palmer dragged the ball nonchalantly behind his standing leg, bisecting two defenders perfectly, and Chukwuemeka ran through to slide the ball calmly through the legs of Stolarczyk.
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GOAL! Chelsea 3-2 Leicester (Chukwuemeka 90+2)
Carney Chukwuemeka scores the winner after a piece of magic from Cole Palmer!
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90+1 min: Chelsea substitution Ben Chilwell is on for Marc Cucurella. There will be eight minutes of added time.
90 min: Jackson misses a great chance! Gusto hares past a weary Dewsbury-Hall and cracks another cross that ricochets towards Jackson, 12 yards out. He leans back and sidefoots the bouncing ball over the bar.
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89 min: Good save by Stolarczyk! Gusto drives a low cross towards Madueke, who openes his body to steer a deft first-time shot towards goal. Stolarczyk plunges to make a smart save and the loose ball is booted clear.
88 min I’m still giggling at the speed and sheer indignation of the booing after Sterling’s free-kick. I’ve never heard anything like it from a group of fans towards one of their own players.
86 min: Chelsea substitution Noni Madueke replaces Raheem Sterling, who is booed by a minority of the fans as he goes off. This is the modern way.
85 min Palmer twists Coady one way and then the other on the edge of the area, making room for a fierce shot that hits Faes in the face. He goes down and will need treatment.
84 min Leicester’s ten men are playing for extra-time, as you’d expect. They need to find some source of respite though because they haven’t crossed the halfway line in minutes.
83 min Chukwuemeka, who has been all business since coming on, whips over from the left side of the area.
81 min “That Twin Peaks clip is easily my favorite MBM running gag!” sys Joe Pearson. “Thanks!”
Don’t thank me, thank BOB.
80 min Sterling, still being jeered by his own fans, finds Chukwuemeka, who plays in Palmer to his right. His shot is blocked at source by Vestergaard, a crucial bit of defending.
80 min “Regarding strikers who don’t fancy penalties, just get your keeper to take them,” says Simon McMahon. “Pressure, what pressure?”
That penalty is the audio-visual definition of the word ‘blooter’.
78 min: Chelsea substitution More boos, really vitriolic stuff, when Carney Chukwuemeka comes on for Mykhailo Mudryk. Some of the fans are frothing, pointing at Mauricio Pochettino and chanting, “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
Blimey, a Sunday stroll has turned into a mutiny.
78 min: Leicester substitution Conor Coady comes on for Wilfred Ndidi.
76 min That’s one of the strangest free-kicks I’ve ever seen. Not just the kick, which was comical, but the genuinely angry chorus of boos it elicited.
75 min Sterling charges towards the free-kick - eyes on the top corner, that’s where it’s going, oh-ho yes ladies and germs - and smashes the ball miles into orbit. It’s an awful free-kick, one of the greats really, and it is met with a chorus of boos from the home fans. I’m not sure he deserves that, though equally he shouldn’t have been taking the free-kick ahead of Cole Palmer.
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74 min: Leicester substitution Before the free-kick is taken, James Justin replaces Stephy Mavididi (and Callum Doyle).
74 min Palmer is over the free-kick…
NO PENALTY AND A RED CARD FOR DOYLE!
73 min It wasn’t a deliberate foul by Doyle, but he caught Jackson’s standing leg when he was through on goal.
VAR check The first contact, possibly the only contact, was outside the area. If they overturn the penalty, can they send Doyle off for denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity? I think that’s what will happen.
PENALTY TO CHELSEA! Chelsea break, Jackson charges through on goal and is tripped by Doyle. He’s booked. I wonder who will take it.
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70 min Dewsbury-Hall gallops into space on the left and hammers a cross towards Daka. Cucurella gets a vital touch to divert the ball away from him.
68 min Chelsea are in real danger here. It’s such an unlikely twist after a first half in which they were increasingly comfortable, but Axel Disasi’s comedy own goal gave them the jitters. It has been a different game since then.
68 min “To really put it up Chelsea,” says Ian Copestake, “Leicester should bring on as many kids as they have available.”
Does Conor Coady count?
67 min Mavididi is booked for pulling back Gusto.
66 min This is so open. Mudryk’s pass from the left side of the area finds Sterling, whose quick shot is crucially blocked by Vestergaard.
65 min Palmer curls over from the edge of the area, a not dissimilar effort to Mavididi’s goal. For a player of such rare class that’s a pretty decent chance.
63 min: Leicester substitution Yunus Akgun is on for Abdul Fatawu.
Stephy Mavididi has equalised with a banger! Dewsbury-Hall found him on the left with a simple pass, and he moved slowly into the area as Gusto backpedalled, all the while assessing his options. A quick stepover did for Gusto, allowing Mavididi to move inside, use Disasi as a screen and shape a classic curling shot into the far corner. Sanchez had no chance.
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GOAL! Chelsea 2-2 Leicester (Mavididi 62)
Oh yes yes yes: this is a fantastic goal!
61 min Some fella charges on the pitch, which leads to a short break in play while he is attended to.
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60 min Ndidi catches Caicedo on the shin, studs well over the ball. He probably should have been booked for that, though there wasn’t enough force for VAR to get involved.
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60 min Leicester are having their best spell of the match, sparked by that strange goal. Chelsea, who looked totally comfortable for the first five minutes of the second half, need to be careful that this doesn’t turn into the quarter-final from hell.
58 min Ndidi’s cross is shouldered wide by Daka, who mistimed his jump after getting away from Chalobah (I think) in front of the near post.
58 min “I remember fully believing Darius Vassell would miss against Portugal 20 (twenty) years ago,” says Niall Mullen. “Not only was he English but he was a striker who waited until sudden death to take his kick.”
And Rooney didn’t take one at all, in that game or the 2006 quarter-final.
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57 min Fatawu, with no backlift, hits an early inswinging cross that just evades the leaping Daka in the middle. Leicester are right back in this game.
57 min As you’d hope, the Leicester fans are shouting “shoooooooooooot” every time Disasi touches the ball.
This feels as good a time as any to play our 17-year-old feature on classic own goals.
54 min End-to-end-to-end stuff. Caicedo runs onto a return pass from Gallagher and cracks a low shot from 15 yards that is saved by the sprawling Stolarczyk.
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53 min This is great stuff now! Fatawu beats Cucurella with ease in the area, gets to the byline and lifts a cross that is claimed at the second attempt by Sanchez.
52 min Jackson blasts into the side netting from a tight angle, then has a bit of a row with Winks.
What a bizarre own goal from Axel Disasi. He received a throw-in 45 yards out, running towards his own goal, with Sanchez waiting for a pass in a slightly weird position on the edge of the area. Daka leaned into Disasi, who sliced the ball wide of Sanchez and straight into his own net.
Disasi was off balance because of the (legal) challenge from Daka. Even so, as own-goals go, that’s one for the books.
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GOAL! Chelsea 2-1 Leicester (Disasi og 51)
That’s the Christmas blooper DVD sorted.
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49 min The impressive Dewsbury-Hall is fouled 40 yards from goal by Caicedo. Leicester take the free-kick short and do nothing with it.
46 min Peep peep!
There’s also live action in the WSL, where title-chasing Manchester City are at Brighton. Join Emillia Hawkins for the latest.
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Half-time reading
This is a cracking piece, with one unforgivable flaw: it should have been twice as long.
The BBC are showing footage of Sterling taking the ball off Palmer for the penalty. There wasn’t a row, though it was clearly instigated by Sterling. I guess Sterling wanted a confidence boost, but a) it was only 1-0 and b) if you do that, you’d better score.
“On strikers not fancying penalties,” says Tom Hopkins, “I’m put in mind of Nicholas Anelka waiting until well into sudden death to take a penalty in the Champions League final against Man Utd. Whether that was due to not fancying penalties or he sensed an opportunity to add to the sum of human happiness by letting Terry shank one I don’t know.”
It looks like he’d missed one for Bolton earlier in the season, and I suppose Terry was always going to pull rank anyway. But yes, ultimately Anelka went after three defenders.
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Half time: Chelsea 2-0 Leicester
Chelsea are on course for another semi-final. Leicester were their equals throughout the first half, but only in the middle third. Chelsea were far more dangerous, particularly in wide positions, and created a number of chances.
Nicolas Jackson did all the work for Marc Cucurella’s opening goal before the resilient Raheem Sterling – who had missed a penalty and a sitter – set up the second for Cole Palmer on the stroke of half-time.
45+3 min Gallagher slips as he shoots from distance, with the ball going a few yards wide. The keeper had it covered.
45+2 min “Want the ball even when you don’t want the ball,” is one of Roy Keane’s favourite phrases. It takes rare courage to do it, and Raheem Sterling has it.
GOAL! Chelsea 2-0 Leicester (Palmer 45+1)
One thing Raheem Sterling will never, ever do is hide, no matter how badly things are going. He heads a loose ball into space on the left, moves into the area and slides a precise low cross that Palmer turns in from close range.
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44 min: Sterling misses a great chance! He’ll show you the life of the mind. Chelsea went straight down the middle of the pitch: Sanchez to Jackson to Caicedo, who slipped a first-time ball behind Faes to put Sterling through on goal. Stolarczyk came out and Sterling curled the ball wide from 18 yards. It looked like he missed by a fair way.
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42 min Fatawu guides a careful pass into the underlapping Ntini, whose chipped cross on the run is too close to Sanchez. He’s erratic, like all young players, but Fatawu looks so talented.
38 min A relatively quiet few minutes. It’s been a good half – Chelsea have been the better team but, even though Robert Sanchez hasn’t had a save to make, they won’t feel comfortable at 1-0. Leicester have played some good stuff, Fatawu and Dewsbury-Hall in particular.
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35 min “I’ve always been a big fan of Sterling but he’s never been the cleanest striker of a ball,” says Niall Mullen. “I’d never have him on penalties.”
Yes, same here. I think he’s missed five out of nine, something like that. I’m fascinated by brilliant attackers who either aren’t very good at penalties or just don’t fancy them. Andy Cole and Michael Owen were in that category (I think)
34 min Mudryk runs from the halfway line, all the way into the Leicester area with defenders backpedalling. Eventually he whacks a shot from a tight angle that is pushed away by the diving Stolarczyk.
33 min Sanchez hurt himself while coming for that corner and is receiving treatment. He’s okay to continue for now.
31 min: Chance for Leicester! Fatawau’s fast, deep corner tempts Sanchez from his line. He doesn’t get there and Faes’s downward header goes well wide. That’s a chance, even if he would have seen the ball very late.
30 min Cucurella heads another Dewsbury-Hall cross behind for a corner, with Fatawu cocking the hammer behind him.
29 min This is good fun, a very open game. Leicester should be out of it but that penalty save will give them a fresh hit of purpose.
27 min That was similar to Gareth Southgate’s penalty against Germany at Euro 96, though probably a bit worse. Very odd.
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Stolarczyk saves Sterling's penalty!
26 min It was a really poor penalty, sidefooted unconvincingly to the left. Stolarczyk went the right way and saved with his legs.
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25 min He didn’t get the ball. Sterling was about to shoot from 15 yards when Fatawau, getting back desperately, took a shortcut through his standing leg.
25 min: Penalty to Chelsea! Fatawu is penalised for a foul on Sterling, though he says he got the ball.
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24 min: Chance for Daka! Leicester are coming into it again. Fatawu teases a delicious inswinging cross to the far post that is headed just wide by the backpedalling Daka. He had to jump backwards, and on reflection it would have been a better chance for the player behind him, Dewsbury-Hall I think.
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23 min A terrific first-time cross from Dewsbury-Hall beats the flailing Sanchez and is headed behind by Cucurella. The corner hits somebody at the far post and rolls dangerous across the six-yard line before Chalobah boots it clear.
22 min The BBC commentator Jonathan Pearce has just generously said happy birthday to Lee Dixon, announcing that “he’s 65 today”. That’ll be news to Dixon, who was born in 1964.
21 min Chelsea are starting to take control of the game. They look especially dangerous in transition, with Jackson giving the Leicester centre-backs Vestergaard and Faes a good workout.
18 min Chelsea almost make it 2-0. Sterling flicks a long ball onto Jackson, who runs the inside-left channel and gives the ball back to Sterling in the area. His loose touch allows a defender to make a challenge, then Muydryk’s follow-up hits Sterling. It was on target and might have wrongfooted the keeper Stolarczyk.
17 min Sanchez receives a pass from Disasi, farts around as if he’s playing sweeper in a testimonial and is suddenly block tackled by Daka. Thankfully for Chelsea the ball ricochets behind for a goalkick.
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15 min Mudryk nuitmegs Winks on the halfway line and sets off. He beats Choudhury as well but then slightly overhits his through pass to Jackson. It wasn’t an easy ball to play.
GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Leicester (Cucurella 13)
Just like that, Chelsea take the lead. Palmer plays a routine pass down the right to Jackson, one v one with Vestergaard. He cuts into the area, zips outside Vestergaard and slides the ball across to give Cucurella an open goal. Very good play from Jackson, though Vestergaard was beaten too easily.
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11 min So far it’s been a game of equals, with Leicester looking bright and purposeful in possession.
10 min Choudhury, wandering from full-back into midfield in the modern style, fizzes a pass between the lines to Fatawu. He controls it beautifully on the half turn, then tries to lift a pass out to Mavididi on the left. Gusto is well positioned and heads clear.
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8 min It’s been a bright start, both teams literally trying to play football. Gusto makes an excellent run into space on the right but the pass from Disasi is too strong.
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4 min: Palmer hits the post! Mudryk’s fast corner is flicked on jauntily by Palmer , facing away from goal at the near post. The ball loops over the head of a defender on the line before brushing the bottom of the post.
3 min Now Palmer runs at Vestergaard to win Chelsea’s first corner. It’s taken short, crossed deep and headed behind for another…
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2 min Mavididi runs Gusto to win an early corner for Leicester. It’s taken short to Dewsbury-Hall, whose flat, deep cross is volleyed back across goal and wide by Winks. They’ve clearly worked on that, though it will always be a pretty difficult ball to strike on the volley.
1 min Chelsea have started with Mudryk, not Palmer, as their No10. Sterling is on the left with Palmer on the right.
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1 min Leicester kick off from left to right as we watch. They’re wearing their change strip, which resurrects the iconic teal sash synonymous with the club’s Victorian roots on a familiar black design, with monochrome LCFC crest and adidas Badge of Sport adding a modern twist to a layout from the archives. Complete with matching shorts and socks.
Here come the players. There was some biblical weather about during last night’s tie at the Etihad but it looks dry and mild at Stamford Bridge. Little brisk.
Read Ben Fisher on Leicester’s post-2021 decline
Pressure isn’t always a privilege
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Team news
Mauricio Pochettino brings in Mykhailo Mudryk, who scored from the bench against Newcastle on Monday, in place of the suspended Enzo Fernandez. That should mean Conor Gallagher dropping back and Cole Palmer playing as the No10. Robert Sanchez, demoted to cup goalie, comes in for Djordje Petrovic.
Leicester also change keeper, with Jakub Stolarczyk in for Mads Hermansen. Callum Doyle, Wilfred Ndidi and Patson Daka come in for James Justin, Yunus Akgun and Jamie Vardy, who has a minor injury.
Ndidi is the only player on either side who started the 2021 final.
Chelsea (possible 4-2-3-1) Sanchez; Gusto, Disasi, Chalobah, Cucurella; Caicedo, Gallagher; Sterling, Palmer, Mudryk; Jackson.
Substitutes: Petrovic, Badiashile, Thiago Silva, Acheampong, Chilwell, Harrison, Chukwuemeka, Madueke, Washington.
Leicester (possible 4-2-3-1) Stolarczyk; Choudhury, Faes, Vestergaard, Doyle; Ndidi, Winks; Fatawu, Dewsbury-Hall, Mavididi; Daka.
Substitutes: Ward, Coady, Nelson, Justin, Yunus, Albrighton, Marcal, Iheanacho, Cannon.
Referee Andy Madley
Chelsea's starting XI: confirmed. ✅@ParimatchUK | #CFC | #EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/yTRvM6zUMD
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 17, 2024
Our @EmiratesFACup Quarter-Final XI! ✊#CHELEI pic.twitter.com/SW3OEK94gy
— Leicester City (@LCFC) March 17, 2024
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Preamble
The FA Cup final of 2021 belongs to another world. There was a bumper crowd of 20,000 at Wembley to watch the fourth and fifth best teams in England battle it out. Youri Tielemans’ terrific goal gave Leicester a 1-0 win over Chelsea, who had to settle for the consolation of winning the Champions League a fortnight later.
Both clubs have fallen a fair way since then, and they start this FA Cup quarter-final as the 11th and 21st best sides in the country. While Leicester’s priority is promotion, this is Chelsea’s season entire. Sure they might sneak into Europe, but what they really, really, really want is their first trophy under Mauricio Pochettino. If nothing else, it would give them an opportunity to collect the trophy while wearing T-shirts with the slogan BILLION POUND BOTTLE JOBS.
That Carabao Cup final is Chelsea’s only defeat in the last seven games. Baby steps, for sure, but they’ve played some good stuff of late and Cole Palmer continues to look like one of the bargains of the season.
Leicester have lost three of the last six, an unthinkable run of form given how dominant they’ve been this season. But they won well at Bournemouth in the last round and should enjoy a weekend off from the stress of being hunted down in the Championship. Unlike the 2021 final, this is a bit of a free hit.
Kick off 12.45pm.
