Chelsea beat Eintracht Frankfurt 4-3 on penalties to progress to the Europa League final after the two sides were locked together 2-2 on aggregate following extra time on Thursday night.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek had given Chelsea a 28th-minute lead with a well-taken goal, the England midfielder’s 10th of the season, four of which have come in this competition.
However, in-form forward Luka Jovic drew the visitors level four minutes into the second half with his 27th strike of the campaign, before the semi-final, second leg went to penalties.
And despite Cesar Azpilicueta seeing his spot kick saved by Kevin Trapp, Kepa Arrizabalaga then kept out two Frankfurt penalties to be his side’s hero in the shootout, before Eden Hazard coolly rolled home the final penalty to set up a final with Arsenal in Baku on May 29.
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Both sides went close to making the crucial first breakthrough, with Kepa showing brilliant reflexes to turn over Danny Da Costa’s well-struck volley, before David Luiz saw his clever back header cleared off the line.
However, it was the home side who did open the scoring after a lovely bit of skill from that man Eden Hazard, whose quick feet enabled him to evade the attentions of two opponents in a tight space.
And the Belgian had the awareness to pick out Loftus-Cheek’s run down the left side of the box, with the midfielder then keeping his cool to side-foot the ball past the advancing Trapp and into the bottom right-hand corner.
The visitors, who are currently fourth in the Bundesliga, were reinvigorated after the break and soon got on level terms after a beautifully worked goal involving Mijat Gacinovic and Jovic.
The duo played a neat one-two, before Gacinovic’s clever through pass picked out Jovic free in the box, with the Serb doing the rest for his 10th goal in the competition, joint highest with Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud.
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That goal appeared to give Frankfurt renewed belief as they tore into Chelsea, who did well to hold on and take the tie into extra time, although the added half an hour also brought a number of scares.
