Here’s the semi-final draw
That’s all from me. Bye! John Brewin is all over the FA Cup semi-final draw – join him here:
Ngolo Kanté reacts to Chelsea’s qualification for the FA Cup semi-finals:
It was a difficult game. I think Leicester played very well, they caused us a lot of problems. I think we did well. It was important for us, because now we are in the semi-final, we have to enjoy it and keep going. It’s the only title we can have this season so we have to fight to the end. We are close to the final and we hope to go.
Final score: Leicester 1-2 Chelsea
120+2 mins: Leicester mess about with the ball when they had time only to swing it into the mixer, and the final whistle is blown while they’re still tapping it around on the wing!
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120+1 mins: Chelsea try to score again, Pedro and Fabregas this time trying to tee up Giroud when they might have just kept the ball. They don’t score, and Leicester have a very final chance.
120+1 mins: There is one bonus additional minute to go.
120 mins: Time for one final throw of the dice. Leicester lift the ball into the area, where Vardy is offside.
119 mins: Giroud has the ball in the final third, and puzzlingly attempts a cross to nobody, which Schmeichel gathers. Leicester have the ball again, and Giroud waves his apologies to his team-mates for not taking the ball to the corner flag and wasting a bit more time.
118 mins: Mahrez picks out the run of Silva, sprinting into the area, but Fabregas has tracked him, and blocks the shot.
118 mins: Then Chelsea win a free kick, and take an age over that as well.
117 mins: Moses intercepts an attempted one-two on Leicester’s left and, when the ball goes out of play, takes forever over a throw-in.
115 mins: Leicester take Albrighton off and bring on Gray, ready for a five-minute assault on the Chelsea goal. Or at least, that’s the idea.
114 mins: Leicester have the ball, but no real idea of what to do with it. They play it back, move it to the right, seem desperate not to put it into the area, and finally lose it. Goal kick.
112 mins: Albrighton does something wrong, overhitting a corner, which Maguire can’t keep in play.
110 mins: Nearly a clincher! Mahrez gives the ball away, and Hazard plays Pedro into space on the right. His cross is too high for Giroud but drops to Kante, whose shot is blocked by Albrighton – who might end up on the losing side but has been the best player on the pitch today.
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107 mins: Leicester win a free kick, 35 yards out, and it looks like Mahrez is going to shoot. But instead he chips it into the box and 10 seconds of absolute mayhem ensues, at the end of which Diabate has a decent chance, but it’s blocked and goes behind.
106 mins: Into the final quarter-hour we go.
Important substitutional update: Just before the break Giroud came on for Morata, and during it Leicester made two substitutions, taking off Iborra and Simpson and bringing on Silva and Diabaté.
Half time in extra time: Leicester 1-2 Chelsea
105+3 mins: Where the referee found a full extra minute of stoppage time there I don’t know, but eventually he decides to blow his whistle.
105+1 mins: There’ll only be the one minute of stoppage time.
GOAL! Leicester 1-2 Chelsea (Pedro, 105 mins)
Kanté crosses from deep, Schmeichel runs out to claim it but doesn’t get there in time, Chilwell hears the call and doesn’t jump, and Pedro heads into an empty net!
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103 mins: Pedro, to Hazard, to Moses, who smacks his cross into Albrighton’s face. Moses really seems to have it in for Albrighton’s face, regularly bashing it with arm and ball.
102 mins: Chelsea take off Christensen and bring on Cahill.
101 mins: Hazard twinkles down the right and pulls back, Pedro biffs his shot high.
98 mins: Extra time is rarely a good thing, in my experience, and this one has so far been pretty poor. A Leicester punt forwards bounces harmlessly through to Caballero.
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96 mins: Apparently it was nothing, as the game has eventually continued.
95 mins: The VAR is looking at something! Vardy and Fabregas seem unhappy about it, whatever it is, and the referee has his finger to his ear.
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94 mins: Vardy is picked out, beyond the Chelsea backline, but his first touch forces him to turn the wrong way, and the move peters out.
92 mins: Pedro is coming on for Willian, who was often peripheral but, when he wasn’t, was excellent.
91 mins: A brief pause while one of the referee’s assistants pops to the toilet, and they’re off!
A brief breather, that – they’re about to get going once again.
Score at 90 mins: Leicester 1-1 Chelsea
90+3 mins: The referee allows no additional additional time for Albrighton’s nosebleed, and we will have extra time.
90+2 mins: Fabregas hits a near-perfect 50-yard pass to Morata, but at the last moment Schmeichel screams into the picture and boots clear.
90+3 mins: There will be at least three minutes of stoppage time, and if there’s no goal another 30 minutes of extra time.
90 mins: A delay, because Albrighton is bleeding from his nose.
89 mins: Moses flings out his arm again, this time catching the excellent Albrighton in the chin, and he’s booked.
10 - Jamie Vardy has scored 10 goals in 12 appearances against the 'top six' English sides in all competitions in 2017/18. Unfazed. pic.twitter.com/vroouS0c5Y
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 18, 2018
87 mins: Great chance! For the first time Chelsea work the ball through the middle of Leicester’s defence, Willian playing the final ball to Morata, but Schmeichel saves his shot, and after Morata is first to the loose ball and spins to send in another, saves again – and holds it this time.
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84 mins: Chelsea have been disappointing this half. There is space for them in wide areas, as Leicester’s defence compresses to deny Hazard space in the centre, but they haven’t used it at all well. Nobody in their colours seems able to cross the ball as classily as Albrighton.
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83 mins: Save! Maguire brings the ball out of defence and slides in Vardy, whose shot is stopped by Caballero!
80 mins: Oooh again! Fabregas crosses from the right, and Morata’s spinning backheel flick sends the ball onto the crossbar! He was fractionally offside, mind, so it wouldn’t have counted.
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79 mins: Moses is found in ludicrous amounts of space on the right, but Albrighton manages to catch him up and make crossing difficult, and Chelsea only have a corner.
79 mins: Oooh! Chilwell’s cross from the left deflects just out of Okazaki’s reach!
GOAL! Leicester 1-1 Chelsea (Vardy, 76 mins)
An equaliser! Mahrez crosses from the right and Leicester have four decent attempts on goal in the space of three seconds. Vardy’s first attempt is blocked, Iborra’s is also blocked, then Iborra’s second is saved, and Vardy’s second goes in off Caballero’s arm.
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74 mins: Iborra and Moses compete for the ball after a Leicester throw-in. Iborra has a considerable height advantage, which Moses cleverly nullifies by elbowing him in the chin. He doesn’t have a height advantage when he’s rolling around in agony, after all. The referee waves play on. It wasn’t a particularly vicious elbow, but it was certainly leading with the arm.
70 mins: Chelsea break. Willian’s lovely pass finds Alonso in space on the left, and he lifts it into the path of Hazard. The angle of the pass forces him to the left and the move rather peters out, but it was briefly pleasant.
68 mins: Leicester take off Iheanacho, and bring on Okazaki.
68 mins: Leicester spend a while camped around the edge of Chelsea’s area, trying to find a way in. Then they give up, and Iborra blast over the bar from range.
64 mins: After a Leicester corner, Chelsea try to break. Morata flicks the ball towards Hazard, but Simpson’s hand gets in the way. Free kick.
62 mins: Morata’s cross finds its way across the area to Hazard, who tries a cute little pass that Ndidi anticipates. The pace of the game has picked up considerably since the interval.
58 mins: Moses curls in a tasty cross, and Schmeichel has to palm it away from the onrushing Morata. It leads to a corner, which Schmeichel also gets his gloves to.
56 mins: Leicester have improved since the break, and when they win a corner the fans roar them forward. They play it short, and Albrighton has a shot from an acute angle that Caballero catches.
55 mins: Willian magically keeps the ball in play on the left wing – though he needed it to roll into the meat of the corner flag to do so – and it ends up with Hazard, 20 yards out. His shot flies high.
54 mins: Fabregas fractionally underhits an attempted through-ball towards Morata, who might have had another run on goal but is instead forced to check his run and is tackled.
53 mins: Chance! Ndidi chips the ball over the Chelsea defence and Vardy runs onto it, all alone. His header flies over the bar.
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51 mins: Willian is fouled by Iborra, who might have bee booked but thanks to some very charitable refereeing doesn’t even give away a free kick.
50 mins: Two fine crosses from Albrighton, one with the left and the other – after Morata had given the ball away stupidly – with his right. Neither finds a team-mate, but the second one looked for a while to be heading to Iheanacho.
48 mins: Maguire does well to track Morata’s run from right to left, and then once the Spaniard is found flings out a leg to take the sting out of his eventual shot.
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46 mins: Shot! The ball is played through for Vardy to sprint on to, Caballero comes out and gets there first, but his low clearance goes straight to Mahrez, 45 yards out. With no goalkeeper in his way, he tries a first-time shot which goes way, way wide and also way high.
46 mins: Peeeep! They’re off, and 22 seconds later Willian fizzes in a dangerous low cross, which is cleared.
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The players are back out. Cesc Fábregas is coming on for Bakayoko, which should improve Chelsea immeasurably.
It has been a frustrating game, with both teams lacking quality, confidence or both in the final third. Willian, though, I salute: from picking up the ball just outside his own area to playing Morata in on goal he gave us 15 seconds of fluid beauty. More like that, please, everybody.
Half time: Leicester 0-1 Chelsea
45+2 mins: It’s over, for now. The game needed a goal, and then it got one.
13 - Alvaro Morata has scored his first goal for Chelsea since December 2017 (v Brighton), ending a run of 13 games in all competitions without one. Required. pic.twitter.com/5zhe098iQ1
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 18, 2018
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time, of which there’ll be a minute or so, and it starts with Bakayoko – who is playing pretty poorly again – getting booked for a foul on Iheanacho.
45 mins: Suddenly Morata is spraying outside-of-the-left-foot volleyed passes down the left wing.
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42 mins: Morata’s poor touch allows Iheanacho to win a 50/50 ball and then, against Rudiger this time, another. Leicester head forward in numbers, but then that move breaks down at the edge of the other area and Willian runs back the other way, away from Ndidi. He looks up, sees Morata peeling off Morgan, finds him with a fine pass, and the finish is excellent!
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GOAL! Leicester 0-1 Chelsea (Morata, 42 mins)
Well that was inevitable, really.
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39 mins: Simpson again finds space on the Leicester right, but his cross is cleared. A fog of emphatic goallessness has settled over the game.
36 mins: Maguire’s early pass released Vardy for a run into the penalty area. Caballero decides it’s a good idea to race him to the ball, and – after a moment of excitement when it looks like he won’t – wins.
33 mins: Chelsea work the ball around the penalty area before eventually finding Morata inside it. He reaches the byline but instead of pulling back to Alonso he attempts a ludicrously optimistic shot from an insane angle, which doesn’t go in.
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31 mins: Both defences still look breachable, but no forwards really look up for breaching them. So far the man of the match, by a distance, is the pitch.
29 mins: Another chance for Morata, as he reaches Willian’s cross first but heads it over the bar. He was probably also offside.
27 mins: Chance! Alonso cuts the ball back from the left to Morata, just outside the area, who has time to control and to swing his left foot before anyone gets near him, but the shot is straight at Schmeichel.
25 mins: Morata keeps on getting fouled, and after awarding a third free kick in as many minutes, this time for a foul by Maguire, the referee does get his card out. That was probably the least fouly foul of the lot.
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22 mins: Morata gets the ball on the halfway line, and protects it as he assesses his options. He spends so long assessing them, though, that Morgan gets bored and kicks him in the ankle. Free kick, and though it wasn’t particularly vicious the referee could have got his book out there.
20 mins: Ndidi shoots from 30 yards. It’s low and hard and heading just inside the post, but from far enough away for Caballero to stop it fairly comfortably.
17 mins: Moses goes on another run into Leicester territory. Like the last, it ends with him running into a blue-shirted foe, dropping to the ground and looking towards the referee, who again waves play on.
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17 mins: BBC co-commentator Danny Murphy declares himself “too cold to think”, which isn’t encouraging.
15 mins: Early impressions are that both defences are fairly keen on conceding goals today, which is encouraging.
Whatever the opposite of a "telepathic understanding" is. That's what Morata and Hazard have.
— Barney Ronay (@barneyronay) March 18, 2018
13 mins: Moses gets into the penalty area, runs into Ndidi and goes over, looking hopefully towards the referee. Goal kick.
12 mins: Another chance! This time the corner goes straight to Morgan, and he heads over, under pressure.
11 mins: Chance! The corner is flicked on by Azpilicueta, and Morgan’s header at the far post hits Rudiger’s shoulder and goes wide!
10 mins: Vardy’s cross from the left is overhit, and then Simpson’s from the right is intercepted by Christensen, who concedes a corner.
7 mins: Chelsea attack down the left, but it ends with Morata running offside and then standing there, demanding the ball. Hazard eventually gives it to him, and the linesman raises his flag.
5 mins: Moses runs into space in the penalty area, with Chilwell having been dragged into the middle and Albrighton not tracking his run, but Willian’s pass is overhit and goes out for a goal kick. That was a fabulous chance to create a fabulous chance.
4 mins: Rudiger’s raking pass finds Moses on the right, and he wins the day’s first corner.
3 mins: Finally the ball does come in, and from the edge of the area, level with the penalty spot, Albrighton hits a half-volley that fizzes just wide.
2 mins: The home side got us under way, and has controlled these early moments. They eventually work a decent crossing opportunity for Simpson, but he hits Alonso and the ball rebounds out of play.
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1 min: Peeeeeep! They’re off!
The pitch today is sporting a very fetching haircut, and looks absolutely pristine in all respects. Now some blokes are going to go and ruin it.
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The players are in the tunnel. Action imminent.
Antonio Conte reveals that Thibaut Courtois is injured, which is why he’s not in the matchday squad. Asked if picking Caballero was a difficult decision today, he said:
It wasn’t difficult, because Courtois was injured. He has a muscular problem. And then don’t forget that Caballero has played every game in this competition and played very well, and I trust him a lot.
Willy Caballero is warming up. It’s not hard to work out his sartorial inspiration for today:
“Where on earth is Barkley?” wonders Michael Williams. “Is he still injured or does Conte just really not fancy him?” He’s not still injured – he came back from his lengthy hamstring injury in January – but he is injured, having quickly picked up another one.
Leicester weren’t sure whether their fans would prefer plastic flags or paper clappers, so they got both:
Here’s the Press Association’s take on the teams:
Willy Caballero started in goal and Alvaro Morata up front as Chelsea made three changes for Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final at Leicester. The competition represents Chelsea’s last chance of a trophy this season after their midweek Champions League exit at Barcelona, and Tiemoué Bakayoko came into midfield as Thibaut Courtois, Cesc Fábregas and Olivier Giroud dropped out of the starting XI.
Striker Kelechi Iheanacho and midfielder Marc Albrighton came in for Shinji Okazaki and Demarai Gray for the Foxes, who won 4-1 at West Brom last time out.
The teams!
The team sheets have been handed in, and these are the names upon them:
Leicester: Schmeichel, Simpson, Morgan, Maguire, Chilwell, Mahrez, Iborra, Ndidi, Albrighton, Iheanacho, Vardy. Subs: Gray, Hamer, Adrien Silva, Dragovic, Okazaki, Fuchs, Diabate.
Chelsea: Caballero, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger, Moses, Kante, Bakayoko, Alonso, Willian, Hazard, Morata. Subs: Fabregas, Pedro, Giroud, Zappacosta, Cahill, Emerson, Eduardo.
Referee: Craig Pawson.
Here's our starting XI to face Chelsea: Schmeichel, Simpson, Morgan (c), Maguire, Chilwell, Ndidi, Iborra, Mahrez, Albrighton, Iheanacho, Vardy.
— Leicester City (@LCFC) March 18, 2018
Subs: Hamer, Fuchs, Dragović, Silva, Gray, Okazaki, Diabaté. #LeiChe pic.twitter.com/F6Nw7R2z02
Chelsea team: Caballero; Azpilicueta (c), Christensen, Rudiger; Moses, Bakayoko, Kante, Alonso; Willian, Morata, Hazard.
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 18, 2018
Subs: Eduardo, Cahill, Zappacosta, Emerson, Fabregas, Pedro, Giroud. #LEICHE pic.twitter.com/GlJw0EAvVu
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Here’s footage of Chelsea’s players arriving at the King Power Stadium. I think the lighting in this corridor is unnecessarily moody.
The Blues have arrived! #LEICHE pic.twitter.com/EWU00k8z5e
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 18, 2018
Hello world!
Well then. Since winning this competition four times in six seasons Chelsea have reached the semi-finals once in five years and never got past that stage [edit after John Tumbridge pointed by imbecilic error out to me: except for last year, when they did]. The FA Cup has not always been their highest priority, but this year is different: out of Europe, never in the running for the league title and five points away from the top four, this is a chance to give a clouded season a silver lining. But this will be a stern test: after all, here are the results of Chelsea’s last five away games in all competitions:
Home team 2-1 Chelsea
Home team 4-1 Chelsea
Home team 2-1 Chelsea
Home team 1-0 Chelsea
Home team 3-0 Chelsea
That’s five defeats on the spin. Meanwhile, Leicester’s last nine home games in all competitions:
Leicester 1-1 Away team
Leicester 2-2 Away team
Leicester 3-0 Away team
Leicester 2-0 Away team
Leicester 2-0 Away team
Leicester 1-1 Away team
Leicester 1-0 Away team
Leicester 1-1 Away team
Leicester 1-1 Away team
That’s no defeats, five score draws and four victories with clean sheets – though they did lose 2-1 to Chelsea back in September. Plus Chelsea have won all five previous FA Cup meetings, and gone on to win the pot the last three times they’ve met. This seems un unexpected statistic: if one was to draw up a ranking comparing appearances in Chelsea Cup runs to successful Chelsea Cup campaigns, Leicester are probably Chelsea’s all-time most successful players. Here’s Stuart James’s match preview:
An intriguing tie that brings together two clubs who have had contrasting experiences in Spain this week. While Leicester’s players enjoyed some warm-weather training in Marbella, Chelsea were being given the run around by Lionel Messi in Barcelona. That Champions League exit means it is the FA Cup or bust for Chelsea this season, and getting to the semi-finals will be no easy task. Leicester were unlucky not to win when the clubs met at Stamford Bridge two months ago and last week’s 4-1 win at West Brom was a timely confidence boost.
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