So that’s your lot. Spurs take a one-goal lead to Stamford Bridge in a fortnight, with both managers fuming about VAR. It promises to be an exciting second leg. Until then, thanks for reading, and goodnight!
And now a word with a seething Maurizio Sarri. “I saw a few minutes ago the video, and it was offside. But it’s not important. The linesman stopped his run, he didn’t follow the ball, and had a big influence on our defenders. So at the moment I don’t think the English referees are able to use the system. If you are not sure with the system you have to follow the ball, but he stopped, and so for our defenders he was offside. I don’t know about the keeper, but I know about our defenders. They have to study the system. It is very strange that there is no system in the Premier League but in the Carabao Cup there is. It is very strange for us, the players, and I think also the referees. We played very well, I am really very happy with my players.”
Mauricio Pochettino speaks in a full and frank manner about VAR. “I don’t like VAR. Today we got the benefit, but watching the World Cup or another league like La Liga, no-one is happy from day one that they started to use it. To get the benefit is nice, of course, but I am not happy to win games like this. I am pro-technology because you cannot stop evolution. But waiting how we wait ... the rules are not clear. I am watching every week in La Liga and no-one is happy, whether they are fighting for the title or against relegation. It should be a good example for us, because we still have six months to prove the system, and there is still a lot of work to do.”
David Hytner was our man at Wembley. Here’s his report.
Harry Kane talks to Sky Sports! “I made the run, played to the whistle, nicked it round the keeper. It was a clear penalty, just a matter of whether it was offside or not. Obviously I wasn’t sure, I was just running through on goal, but VAR is there for a reason. I’m sure they got it right. VAR is part of the game, a big part of football going forward. Chelsea had a point to prove, we knew it was going to be tough. It’s a win, it’s what we came here to do. Now we can go for it.”
Danny Rose, who has won the man-of-the-match award, adds: “It was hard work, and it’ll be even harder when we play them in the return leg. But it was a great team performance and I think we deserved it in the end. We tried to get the second, but it was one of those games, Chelsea played really well. There’s going to be pressure on them to come at us in the second leg, but we’re one of the best counter-attacking teams in the league. We’re not going to try to protect, we’re going to try to win it.”
Meanwhile some dispiriting news from Wembley ...
That second leg will be played at Stamford Bridge on Thursday 24 January. The final comes along a month later, on Sunday 24 February. Spurs are in the box seat, but Chelsea will take heart from their performance tonight - they hit the woodwork twice, and had the better of the possession, territory and chances created. They’ll fancy their chances of turning this one around. Put another way: this semi-final is beautifully poised. Gotta love the League Cup! Don’t you dare listen to the miserable buggers who keep talking a good competition down.
FULL TIME: Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Chelsea
And that’s it! Spurs hang on for victory, and they’ll take a one-goal lead to Stamford Bridge in a fortnight’s time! Chelsea were probably the better team on balance, but that man Harry Kane was the difference. There’s a bit of a face-off between Rose and Rudiger after the final whistle, but everyone calms down soon enough.
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90 min +3: Hazard dribbles down the left and earns a corner off Kane. It’s all hands to the pump for Spurs. Hazard takes the corner himself, and again it’s not up to much. Spurs whack clear.
90 min +2: Kovacic bursts down the left, then slips the ball inside for Hazard, who shuttles it further to Kante. This is a glorious flowing move, but just as it looks like Chelsea are about to do something both pretty and pretty dramatic, Rose crunches into Kante with great power. What a saving tackle!
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90 min +1: Spurs make their final change in the game-management style. Eriksen is replaced by Llorente.
90 min: Winks is replaced by Skipp. Hazard, down the left, pulls a ball back for Pedro. But Pedro’s swarmed by white shirts before he can get a shot away. There will be three added minutes.
88 min: Chelsea continue to press forward. But suddenly Spurs break, and Kane has the ball out on the left. He curls a low pass into the centre for Lamela, who seems to have got the better of Alonso. He’d be free, but the ball clanks between his legs. Eventually he’s forced to drag Alonso, who has recovered, to the ground. Spurs so close to a priceless two-goal first-leg advantage!
86 min: Hazard stands stock still, just to the right of the Spurs box. He suddenly bursts past Alli and Rose to reach the byline and stands one up in the middle. Gazzaniga fumbles. Sanchez hacks out with Giroud lurking. The ball breaks left for Alonso, whose shot is deflected into the air harmlessly.
84 min: Pedro dinks one in from the right. Sanchez eyebrows it away, but only to Alonso on the left. Alonso looks to flash a cross to Giroud at the near post, but gets too much on it; the ball misses the striker and Gazzaniga claims.
83 min: Hazard’s free kick is easily dealt with by Sanchez. His set-piece delivery hasn’t been all that tonight.
82 min: Hazard looks to turn down the inside-right channel and is unceremoniously clattered to the floor by Lamela. The substitute, only just on, is booked.
80 min: Both teams make a change. Son is replaced by Lamela, while the very promising Hudson-Odoi makes way for Giroud, who as an erstwhile employee of Arsenal gets the reception you’d expect.
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78 min: Chelsea have enjoyed 65% of the ball in this second half. The majority of the play’s been in the Spurs half, too. The visitors must wonder how they’re not on terms. Hudson-Odoi barrels down the left, Alonso tries to turn the resulting cross in at the near post, but it’s blocked out for a corner. Nothing comes of the set piece.
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76 min: Barkley is replaced by Kovacic.
74 min: Hazard cuts in from the right and flicks a pass down the channel for Kante. The ball slaps Alderweireld’s arm. You’ve seen those given - he’s close, but not super-close - but the referee isn’t interested. Neither is the VAR dude. In fairness to Alderweireld, upon second view, he might have been trying to take his arm away.
72 min: It’s been a fast-paced match pretty much from the get-go. Hazard makes good ground down the right but is stopped by Alli; Kane flicks a pass down the left which Son busts a gut in trying to reach. Nothing’s quite coming off at the moment, for either team, but you can’t mark anyone down for effort. It’s made for a great spectacle.
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70 min: Good work by Azpilicueta down the right earns Chelsea a corner. But Hazard’s delivery is uncharacteristically dismal, failing to beat the first man.
68 min: Wembley is bubbling away. This has been a highly entertaining semi so far, and the crowd are doing their bit. It’s a great atmosphere. And people say the League Cup doesn’t count for anything. Don’t listen to them, kids.
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66 min: Sissoko powers down the right. Kane takes over and hooks the ball further down the wing. Son nearly breaks into the box. He can’t get a shot away. But Sissoko has kept going, and nearly gets the ball under control on the penalty spot. Nearly, but not quite. A hectic, seat-of-pants attack finally comes to an end. But Chelsea were nearly opened up for the first time in a while. That break for Kane’s treatment has done Spurs some good.
65 min: The Spurs physio gives Kane the thumbs up, despite the star striker mumbling something about his calf. Kane’s back in the action soon enough.
64 min: Kane is down looking pained. As he gets treatment, it’s a chance for Spurs to regroup. They’ve been second best since the restart.
63 min: Willian is replaced by Pedro, who scored here for Barcelona in the 2011 Champions League final, the opening goal of their 3-1 victory over Manchester United.
62 min: Hazard dribbles down the right, enters the Spurs box, and takes a shot. It’s high and wide, but the ref decides it’s come off Alderweireld for a corner. Replays aren’t conclusive, so it’s probably for the best that the set piece comes to nought.
61 min: Chelsea are pressing Spurs back. The home side can’t get out of their final third. Hudson-Odoi, Willian, Kante and Hazard are seeing an awful lot of the ball down the right, but can’t prise the hosts open. There’s a sense that it might only be a matter of time, though.
59 min: Sanchez comes straight through the back of Hazard in the centre circle and goes into the referee’s notebook.
58 min: Hazard jinks down the right and crosses. It loops off Rose and over the crossbar. For a second, Gazzaniga was worried about the freak looper there. It’s a corner from the right. Hazard whips it to the near post, where Barkley flicks to the far post. Christensen is haring in, unchallenged. But he clanks his volley wide left from close range. What a chance that was!
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57 min: Azpilicueta has three goes at delivering a cross into the Spurs box from the right. The third attempt hits the arm of Rose, and the Chelsea man wants a penalty. But the ref’s not interested; there wasn’t much space between the two players, and no reaction time.
55 min: Good work by Hudson-Odoi down the right. His deep cross is chested down by Trippier and gathered by Gazzaniga. Chelsea are beginning to dominate this.
54 min: Another fine save by Gazzaniga, who denies Kante’s dipper, turning the ball away from his right-hand post. Chelsea will soon start wondering what they have to do to score.
53 min: Hazard skedaddles in from the left , waltzes past Eriksen, and sends a dipping screamer straight down Gazzaniga’s gullet. There have been precious few signs that this game will end with just the one goal scored.
52 min: Alli and Sissoko exchange passes as the ball’s shuttled in from the Spurs right. Kane is teed up, 30 yards out, and pearls one towards the bottom left. Kepa does extremely well to save. The resulting corner isn’t up to much.
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51 min: ... nowt. Gazzaniga plucks the corner from the sky. No sweat.
50 min: Kante drives forward, and slips the ball right for Hudson-Odoi, who offloads to Hazard. Chelsea’s star man drops a shoulder and very nearly makes room for a shot from the edge of the box. But he’s crowded out so meanders right, then chips left towards Alonso at the far post. Sanchez rises to concede a corner. From which ...
48 min: Sanchez impedes Hazard as he dribbles down the middle of the park. Willian takes the free kick, wedging the ball down the inside-right channel. Hudson-Odoi very nearly brings it down in acres of space - the rest of the box was loaded on the left - but just misses it. Gazzaniga gathers, and the flag had gone up for offside anyway.
47 min: ... the ball’s worked to Eriksen, 20 yards out. He has a shot which Kepa gathers, but not in a wholly convincing style. For a second, it looked like he was in the process of fumbling it, but recovered his composure in time.
46 min: Kane slips a reverse pass down the inside-right channel for Alli, who is stopped from shooting by the outstretched leg of Rudiger. Alli went over in the area, but it was a perfectly timed tackle. Corner, from which ...
And we’re off again! Chelsea get the ball rolling for the second half. No changes. Meanwhile here’s Ed Wall. “One thing I’m unclear about with the VAR decision on the offside - if the assistant referee has raised his flag during the buildup, doesn’t that completely affect how the players (especially on the defensive side) react? Shouldn’t he be keeping his flag down if the decision is marginal and leaving the decision to the VAR team? It strikes me that Kepa was completely baffled for a split second as to what to do, and this might have been poor keeping, or because he was unsure if Kane was really offside.” It’s almost as though VAR is just replacing one set of problems with another. But most people seem happy enough with it, so here we are.
Half-time reading.
HALF TIME: Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Chelsea
And that’s that for the first half. Chelsea shaded it in terms of possession, and have hit the post twice. But it’s Spurs who have the lead thanks to the power running of Harry Kane. The second half is poised perfectly. Don’t you go anywhere!
45 min +2: So nearly a sensational equaliser! Hudson-Odoi Crosses from the right. The ball deflects off Rose and looks like looping over Gazzaniga and into the top left! But the keeper fingertips the ball onto the left-hand post. As the ball bounces across the face of goal, Alderweireld slams the ball clear. Spurs escape!
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45 min: Hudson-Odoi hasn’t stopped running all half. Here he doesn’t stop running into Rose, and earns a brief lecture from the referee.
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43 min: Alonso, deep on the left, curls into the box for Hazard, who can’t control. But the ball nearly drops to Hudson-Odoi, who momentarily considers van Bastening a volley goalwards from a position out right. But the ball deflects through to Gazzaniga.
41 min: Chelsea are beginning to regain their early rhythm. Hudson-Odoi drifts in from the right, opens up his body, and looks to whip a curler into the top left. He overcooks it, but not by so much. It was Chelsea’s eighth attempt on goal so far; Spurs have just had the two. But look at the scoreline.
40 min: A little space for Alonso, set clear down the left by Willian. Alonso curls the ball to the near post, where Kante nips in ahead of Alderweireld and Trippier, and clips a first-time effort off the bottom of the left-hand post! Goal kick.
38 min: Plenty of pantomime booing after a few firm challenges by both sides. Spurs take the sting out of proceedings again with some calm passing around the back. Both sets of fans are enjoying this battle, though.
36 min: Hudson-Odoi and Hazard take turns to dribble down the right. The ball’s switched to Willian out on the left, but his low cross is easily dealt with by Alderweireld.
34 min: Kante has a dig from 25 yards. It’s deflected, but only straight down the throat of Gazzaniga.
33 min: Kante and Hudson-Odoi confuse each other in playing out from the back. Rose steps in and should release Kane down the left, but his pass is poor and Chelsea get away with the mistake.
31 min: Harry Kane has now overtaken Cliff Jones into fourth spot on the all-time Spurs scorers list, with 160 goals. Only Martin Chivers (174), Bobby Smith (208) and Jimmy Greaves (266) ahead of him now. Meanwhile Chelsea have a free kick out on the right. Hazard whips it diagonally to Alonso, who runs it straight out of play for a goal kick. That goal has robbed Chelsea of a little of their early confidence.
29 min: Well that’s got Wembley bouncing. As has a booking for home hero Winks, who cuts across the front of Hazard, a clumsy challenge.
GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Chelsea (Kane 27 pen)
Kane shapes to shoot into the bottom right, but twists and slots the ball into the bottom left. Kepa read it correctly, but Kane gave the kick a good belt and it settles into the net. First blood in the semi to Spurs, slightly against the run of play!
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26 min: Penalty to Spurs! Kane timed his run from deep to perfection - though there was very little in it - and then it’s just down to whether it’s a foul in the box or not. Kane played the ball forward with too much pace - it was flying out for a goal kick - but he was definitely taken out by Kepa, who is booked.
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24 min: But this gets the Spurs fans screaming again. Kane romps off down the inside-left channel after Alderweireld’s long ball. He makes to round Kepa on the outside, and goes over the keeper’s wild lunge. This is going to VAR, because Kane might have been offside.
22 min: Spurs are struggling to get anything going in attack. Chelsea look very comfortable right now, and the home crowd are getting a little worried, if not yet totally agitated.
20 min: Hazard drops a shoulder, 25 yards out, down the inside-right channel. He sends a whipping, dipping, swerving shot goalwards. Gazzaniga does very well to claim a tricky ball without embarrassment.
19 min: After such a fast start, some sort of lull was inevitable at some point. And here it is.
17 min: Barkley has a dig from 30 yards. It flies 30 yards high and 30 yards wide.
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16 min: Spurs enjoy a little period of possession without going anywhere in particular. Only 13% of the play so far has been in the Chelsea final third.
14 min: Spurs take a little of the early sting from the game by passing it around the back awhile in the 1980s style. “I suppose I’m as neutral-ish as one can be on a football match, but as that’s no fun I’m cheering for Spurs out of a certain sense of justice,” writes Hubert O’Hearn. “It would be a crying shame if a squad that has played so well and entertained so mightily for four seasons has the window close and curtains drawn on their era without at least one mad night of ‘We’re Number One!’”
12 min: Chelsea are beginning to get the upper hand. Jorginho latches onto a loose ball in midfield and should set Hudson-Odoi free down the right, but his pass forward is uncharacteristically clumpish, and flies out of play for a goal kick. Hudson-Odoi, who has looked very lively in these opening exchanges, looks irritated at the lost opportunity.
10 min: Willian’s work down the left, and Hazard’s presence in the box, forces Sanchez into conceding a corner. Willian flashes the set piece to the near post, where Barkley attempts an elaborate backflick from a tight angle. The ball nestles on the top of the net.
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9 min: The atmosphere at Wembley is magnificent. The fans are being rewarded with a basketball-style end-to-end rhythm. It’s marvellously open with both sides on the front foot.
7 min: Willian strips Trippier of possession and sprays a glorious left-to-right pass towards Hudson-Odoi, who sashays in from the wing and belts low and hard towards the bottom right. Gazzaniga handles it well.
5 min: Yes, a bright, open, end-to-end start. Barkley sends a shot into the side netting to the left of the Spurs goal. Then Kane sends a spectacular overhead kick straight at Kepa. This is great.
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3 min: Well this is a bright start by both sides, and here’s the first major talking point, as Alli rakes a long pass down the inside-right channel for Son to chase. For a second, it looks as though Son’s going to burst clear into the Chelsea area, but he’s stopped in his tracks by Christensen. Son, sailing across the turf on the old nips, wants either a penalty kick or a free kick, and whatever punishment for the defender. But it was shoulder to shoulder, with minimal tugging, and neither the ref nor the VAR operators are interested.
2 min: Hudson-Odoi sails in from the Chelsea right and one-twos with Hazard. He very nearly breaks into the Spurs area, but lets the ball run away from him, allowing the hosts to clear.
Here we go, then! Spurs get the first leg of this League Cup semi-final underway! And they’re immediately on the attack, Rose turning on the jets down the left. But he can’t quite squeak through a gap, and ends up fouling Azpilicueta. Both sets of fans giving it plenty.
The teams are out! Spurs are in their famous lilywhite, while Chelsea sport their storied royal blue. A fine atmosphere at Wembley, as befits a London derby, never mind a major semi-final. Spurs will be hoping for the sort of fast start that blew Chelsea away in the Premier League in November. Chelsea will be looking for a result that’ll set them up nicely for the second leg, to be played at Stamford Bridge on Thursday 24th. We’ll be off in a minute!
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Mauricio Pochettino talks! “It is a semi-final and we are trying to win. We are in a good condition to give different players an opportunity, but our challenge is to be good and fight for this competition. Of course it will be tough because Chelsea are a very good team. I expect it to be a very good game.”
Maurizio Sarri speaks! “In the last match here against Tottenham, we lost without playing. Theirs was a different approach, they were more aggressive. We didn’t play. Alvaro Morata has a problem with his hamstring and we prefer him to rest. Hudson-Odoi is on the pitch because in the last match he did very well. I prefer to start with the young players.”
A quick look inside the dressing rooms before the big game. Tottenham have long made themselves at home at Wembley, each player with their own personal cubby-hole. The lighting quite brash and businesslike, you’ll notice.
The away team are presented with an altogether different vibe. A stark contrast to the home dressing room, this one is lit like a treatment room at a luxury spa. You can almost hear the relaxing sounds of the pan-pipes. Chelsea will do well not to fall asleep in their plush robes and slippers. I hope they don’t miss kick-off.
Unsurprisingly, given the strange state of cup football in this country these days, both teams make many, many, many changes. Spurs won 7-0 at Tranmere Rovers on Friday night, and there are seven changes to the team named at Prenton Park. Out go Kyle Walker-Peters, Juan Foyth, Serge Aurier, Ben Davies, Lucas Moura, Oliver Skipp and Fernando Llorente; in come Kieran Trippier, Toby Alderweireld, Danny Rose, Harry Winks, Moussa Sissoko, Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane.
Chelsea make eight changes to the side sent out to beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. Out go Willy Caballero, Davide Zappacosta, David Luiz, Emerson, Ethan Ampadu, Alvaro Morata, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and the departing Cesc Fabregas; in come Kepa, Cesar Azpilicueta, Antonio Rudiger, Marcos Alonso, Jorginho, N’Golo Kante, Willian and Eden Hazard.
Stronger sides than the ones fielded in the FA Cup third round against lower-league opposition, then. Which is about right, given everyone’s three matches away from silvery glory. Tottenham recall their big names - Kane, Eriksen, Alderweireld, Sissoko - while Willian returns for Chelsea after a hamstring injury. Callum Hudson-Odoi starts despite the rumours surrounding a move to Bayern Munich, but Alvaro Morata is injured and doesn’t make the squad.
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The teams
Tottenham Hotspur: Gazzaniga, Trippier, Alderweireld, Sanchez, Rose, Winks, Sissoko, Eriksen, Alli, Kane, Son.
Subs: Lamela, Walker-Peters, Llorente, Davies, Skipp, Lloris, Foyth.
Chelsea: Arrizabalaga, Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Christensen, Alonso, Kante, Jorginho, Barkley, Willian, Hazard, Hudson-Odoi.
Subs: Pedro, Caballero, Giroud, Zappacosta, Ampadu, Luiz, Kovacic.
Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland).
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Preamble
Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea have a long tradition of meeting at the business end of the League Cup. They first clashed in the 1972 semis, a last-gasp John Hollins penalty giving Chelsea a 3-2 win at Stamford Bridge in the first leg, the deal sealed in a 2-2 draw at White Hart Lane thanks to some late confusion between Cyril Knowles and Pat Jennings on the Spurs goalline. Chelsea lost to Stoke in the final.
In the 1991 quarters of the Rumbelows Cup, Chelsea thrashed a dismal Tottenham side 0-0 at Stamford Bridge, then did what they should have done in the replay at White Hart Lane. A 3-0 rout, with Andy Townsend, Kerry Dixon and Dennis Wise in the goals. Chelsea lost to Sheffield Wednesday in the semis.
The 2002 Worthington Cup semis saw Chelsea win the first leg at Stamford Bridge 2-1 thanks to a pair of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink goals, but were steamrollered 5-1 in the White Hart Lane return. Steffen Iversen, Tim Sherwood, Teddy Sheringham, Simon Davies and Sergei Rebrov did the business for Spurs, while Hasselbaink was sent off for pushing his hand in Sheringham’s grid (even though it was Mario Melchiot who did the dirty deed). Spurs lost to Blackburn in the final.
They’ve since won a final showdown apiece. Jonathan Woodgate was the extra-time hero for Tottenham in 2008; John Terry and Diego Costa doing the damage for Chelsea in 2015.
So what does this tell us? That on balance, Chelsea have the upper hand over Spurs in this tournament. And that the winners of this two-legged semi will, if history is any guide, go on to lose the final to either Manchester City or Burton Albion. But history isn’t the be-all and end-all, and records are there to be broken. So who will gain the upper hand tonight as Mauricio Pochettino and Maurizio Sarri go on the hunt for the first trophy of their managerial careers? We’ll find out soon enough, because tonight, at Wembley, it’s on!
Kick off: 8pm GMT.
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