Chelsea Slavia Prague Live Radio Commentary
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Chelsea 4-3 Slavia Prague recap: Blues into semi-finals after seven-goal thriller
Chelsea beat Slavia Prague 5-3 on aggregate after a Stamford Bridge thriller to reach the Europa League semi-finals
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Zola says Chelsea may make changes for Slavia Prague clash
Chelsea booked their spot in the Europa League semi-finals after beating Slavia Prague 4-3 in a thriller at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues, already leading 1-0 after the first leg, were in cruise control as they went 3-0 up inside 17 minutes via goals from Pedro, Olivier Giroud and Simon Deli own goal.
Slavia Prague hit back before Pedro notched a second in the 27th minute to make it 4-1 and ensure they were firmly in control.
But the visitors bagged a quick-fire second half double for Petr Secvik just before the hour mark to make Maurizio Sarri sweat and ensure they had to work hard in the closing stages.
Their progression was never really in much doubt, but they made hard work of a 5-3 aggregate win with a sluggish second half performance.
Eintracht Frankfurt await the Blues in the last four after they came from two goals down to draw 4-4 with Benfica and progress on away goals.
Chelsea: Kepa, Emerson, Luiz, Christensen, Azpilicueta, Kovacic, Kante, Barkley, Hazard, Pedro, Giroud.
Subs:Caballero, Zappacosta, Cahill, Jorginho, Higuain, Hudson-Odoi, Willian.
Recap all the action as it happened here.
Job done, eventually...
That will do it for our live coverage of this Europa League match between Chelsea and Slavia Prague! We hope you enjoyed following along, and will join us again soon!
Slavia were the better team in the second half, but had dug their hole just a bit too deep in the first. After being down three goals at the break, the visitors came out firing in the second half and got back into the match through a pair of wonder strikes from Sevcik (51', 54'). From there it looked as though they would be able to score another, but Sarri made a fantastic substitution bringing on Jorginho which stopped Slavia from streaming through the midfield as they'd been doing before he entered the pitch. The guests did wind up having another couple of half chances in the embers of the match, but were unable to put any of them in the back of the net. From Chelsea's perspective, they did enough in the first half to ensure they would advance, but they certainly didn't make things easy on themselves... or their fans with that second half performance. In the end though, Chelsea win on the day, win the tie, and advance to the Europa League semi-finals where they will face Eintracht Frankfurt.
As for what's next for these clubs, Chelsea will hope to ride the momentum of this win into their match against Burnley on Monday as the Blues try to secure themselves a spot in the top four of the Premier League. Slavia Prague, on the other hand, will try to recover from this loss quickly as they try to maintain their five point lead at the top of the Czech First League when they face Zlin at the weekend.
90+3 mins minute by minute
FULL-TIME: Chelsea 4-3 Slavia Prague (agg. 5-3)
90+1 mins minute by minute
Traore hip checks Kovacic on the counter-attack and the former is called for the foul.
90 mins minute by minute
Stoch, who leads Slavia in domestic goals (12) steps up to take the free-kick.... and hammers it straight into the wall.
90 mins minute by minute
There will be three minutes of added time.
89 mins minute by minute
Luiz handles the ball just outside of the box! Slavia will have a free-kick from a near perfect shooting position.
86 mins minute by minute
Sustained pressure from Slavia now as they throw everyone forward. Remember, they do still need two goals to advance.
87 mins minute by minute
Pedro, who was involved in four goals on the day, is replaced by Hudson-Odoi.
Enjoying themselves...
Image:
Action Images via Reuters)85 mins minute by minute
Slavia make their final substitution as Skoda replaces Zmrhal.
83 mins minute by minute
Kepa picks up a yellow card for delaying the goal-kick for far more time than the referee deemed appropriate.
84 mins minute by minute
Hudson-Odoi is being prepared as a substitute on the Chelsea bench.
82 mins minute by minute
Stoch, wanting to get in on the scoring action, fires a shot from outside the box that initially looks on target but keeps rising. Goal-kick to the hosts.
81 mins minute by minute
Chelsea starting to build a bit of momentum as Willian and Azpilicueta combine well going forward with the latter's cross being deflected out for a throw-in deep in Slavia's half.
78 mins minute by minute
Sevcik is withdrawn after contributing two fantastic goals today. Stoch will now enter the fray.
68 mins minute by minute
Some sloppy passing from Chelsea in the past couple of minutes that Slavia could have capitalised on had they not been equally loose with the ball.
75 mins minute by minute
Emerson sees his name go into the book after going through a Slavia player for a header.
75 mins minute by minute
Emerson surges down the left wing before trying to cut in between two Slavia defenders which... does not work.
73 mins minute by minute
Kudela brings down Willian, and the former is shown yellow.
73 mins minute by minute
Every Chelsea player is back in their own half as Slavia continue a prolonged spell of possession.
70 mins minute by minute
The visitors have been relatively unbothered as they build play through the midfield. Feels like Slavia are more likely to score the next goal than Chelsea at the moment.
70 mins minute by minute
It seems Sarri noticed his side losing the midfield as well as he brings on Jorginho to sort things out. Barkley is the player to make way.
66 mins minute by minute
A low through ball is played forward to Olayinka... but the pass was just too heavy and rolls into the arms of Kepa.
65 mins minute by minute
Hazard is brought off early as expected. Willian, who leads the competition in assists, will now come on.
61 mins minute by minute
Just a reminder that if Slavia somehow get up to five goals on the day, and prevent Chelsea from scoring, it would be the visitors who would advance on away goals.
Chelsea Slavia Prague Live Radio Commentary
Source: https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/match-reports/chelsea-vs-slavia-prague-live-14387217
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