Chelsea advance to FA cup semi-finals

The last remaining quarterfinal of the FA cup was played yesterday evening as Jose Mourinho`s Manchester United traveled to London, to face Conte`s Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Both teams had been in a good form lately, Manchester United had not lost a league game since their last visit to Stamford Bridge on the 23rd October last year when Chelsea won the Red Devils 4-0, and Chelsea had lost just three league games throughout the whole season. 

N`golo Kanté scored the only goal of the match to set Chelsea to the semis ©Getty Images

As always before these two teams met, the media was filled with speculations and comments from the managers of both the teams. Conte was all praises for Mourinho for his work with Chelsea, in two spells with the Blues. The Portuguese manager has helped Chelsea win three Premier League and a league cup titles as well as one FA Cup. Conte before the game said,"I think Jose Mourinho wrote a good part of the history of Chelsea. It's important, always, not to forget this. I have great respect for him because he's a winner. I like his mentality. He has a winning mentality." 

Jose Mourinho had made it clear that he is eyeing on winning the Europa League this year, thus sealing a berth to the Champions League qualifications next season for Manchester United which according to him, is far more important than winning the FA Cup, however, as the match kicks off, there was no lack of motivation shown by the players of either teams. 

Conte`s Chelsea get a few early chances but the visiting team's goalkeeper David De Gea managed to keep a clean sheet. With his eleven goals this season for Chelsea, the Belgian attacking midfielder Eden Hazard was marked man by Manchester United`s defender Phil Jones. Mourinho seemed to have instructed his squad to not give Hazard any room to play the ball on the pitch. This resulted in two yellow cards for Manchester United`s Ander Herrera for tackling Hazard twice and was sent off the pitch 35 minutes in the first half. 

This changed the game on its head, as Chelsea`s three defenders capitalized on the Machester's United's loss and moved the ball forward swiftly without being pressed by two strikers. Chelsea took control of the game, however, struggled to score despite their effort as a result of David De Gea`s excellent goalkeeping for the Red Devils. Six minutes into the second half N`golo Kanté chalked up the first goal of the match as scored his second goal of the season for the Blues both coming against Manchester United, giving them a 1-0 lead. 

Only eight minutes later, Marcus Rashford nearly scored an equaliser for Manchester United in a one on one chance against Chelsea`s goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois who made a spectacular save with his left foot. Chelsea managed to maintain their lead until the final whistle. This 1-0 victory over Manchester United meant that Chelsea will proceed to the FA Cup semi-finals where they will face the rivals, Tottenham at Wembley. Arsenal will play against Manchester City in the other semi-final which will also be played at the Wembley stadium.