Rafael Benitez’s Chelsea booked a semi-final berth in the FA Cup against Manchester City by beating rivals Manchester United in the replay of the FA Cup 6th round match. The semi-final clash is scheduled to be played at the national team’s stadium in central London, Wembley.
Chelsea dumped Manchester United out of the FA Cup beating them 1-0 with a wonder strike from January signing Demba Ba to set up a mouth-watering semi-final clash against Manchester City.
An outstretched Ba somehow managed to get a touch onto a Juan Mata cross looping the ball over David ge Gea who was rooted to his spot. All De Gea could do, was pick the ball out from the back of the net.
Due to the number of fixtures this month, both managers made extensive changes to the teams that started in league clashes less than 48 hours ago.
Wayne Rooney sat out over the weekend and missed out on this game too due to injury. Sir Alex Ferguson hopes he will be available for the clash against Manchester City in the English Premier League. The clash may be insignificant regarding the title race, but nonetheless pride is at stake.
De Gea, Chris Smalling, Michael Carrick and Antonio Valencia were the only Manchester United players to start both the games, the one over the weekend and this FA Cup clash.
Benitez notably dropped center back and club captain John Terry who just returned from injury. Frank Lampard and Fernando Torres were both relegated to the bench. Benitez significantly reorganized his midfield with Ramires, Juan Mata and Eden Hazard starting.
The first break came only at the half an hour mark when Belgian winger, Hazard sent a through ball in for Ba from the right flank only for him to see his power driven shot saved at the near post. Hazard came close to scoring once again with a quick run in from the left where he beat Phil Jones, shared a one-two with Oscar but unfortunately his shot went narrowly over the crossbar.
Petr Cech made two brilliant saves from two attempts by Javier Hernandez. The first was a shot from long range and the second was a save from point blank rage of the little Mexicans head.
Robin van Persie a second half substitute came close two putting his team level on two occasions. One was a glaring miss that he a player of his calibre should have converted easily while the second was from a late header that flew above the net.