Chelsea beat Liverpool after extra-time to reach final
Posted by admin | 9 years ago | 3,077 times
Branislav Ivanovic's extra-time header was enough to decide a fiery and incident-filled League Cup semi-final against Liverpool.
Both sides threw themselves into this pulsating second leg, which was played at a frenetic pace from the off.
While Chelsea saw plenty of the ball, it was Liverpool who carved out the best chances of the half, with Raheem Sterling racing clear of two Chelsea defenders at speed, but failing to pick out Steven Gerrard, who was screaming for the pass.
Diego Costa, who was lucky the referee missed an early stamp on Emre Can in front of the technical area, later went down in the box under a challenge from Martin Skrtel - but contact was minimal at best and the referee rightly ignored the calls for a spot kick.
The best chance of the half fell to Liverpool left-back Alberto Moreno, whose run was picked out superbly by Steven Gerrard's defence-splitting through ball, but Moreno took a first touch, which allowed Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois to set himself and make the save.
Philippe Coutinho, a livewire all night, then drove through the heart of the Chelsea defence and forced Courtois into another smart save, this time low down with his left foot.
Chelsea improved after the break and dominated for long periods and could have gone ahead on more than one occasion, but it took them a few minutes after the end of regulation time to do so from a set-piece.
Ivanovic headed home from Willian’s wide free-kick in the only goal of the game.
Source: Eurosport
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