News24
19 Apr 2019, 03:42 GMT+10
London - Chelsea were given a fright by Slavia Prague in a 4-3 home win on Thursday that saw them to a 5-3 aggregate victory and a place in the semi-finals of the Europa League.
Already 1-0 up from the first leg, Chelsea were cruising when they scored three more goals in the first 17 minutes at Stamford Bridge courtesy of Pedro, an own-goal by Simon Deli and Olivier Giroud and were 4-1 ahead on the night at half-time.
But having been facing a rout, the Czech visitors restored their pride with two early second-half goals from Petr Sevcik as they threatened a remarkable comeback.
Chelsea, however, held on and the London club will face Eintracht Frankfurt for a place in the final after the German side beat Benfica 2-0 to go through on away goals after the tie ended level at 4-4 after two legs.
Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri made five changes from the team beaten 2-0 by Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday and put Eden Hazard on the wing with Olivier Giroud the Blues' central striker.
The Londoners doubled their aggregate lead just five minutes into the second leg of this quarter-final tie thanks to Pedro's neat finish after a one-two with Giroud.
Minutes later, Chelsea had another goal.
Pedro produced a contender for miss of the season when presented with a tap-in from close range that came back off the post only for the ball to fly into the face of Slavia defender Simon Deli and rebound into the net for a bizarre own-goal.
Pedro then turned provider, squaring for Giroud to score his 10th Europa League goal of the season.
Chelsea were cruising at 3-0 ahead on aggregate and it seemed Tomas Soucek had done no more than score a consolation goal when he rose unmarked to head in from a corner.
Chelsea though were soon three goals ahead again when Pedro bundled the ball in.
But Slavia rallied impressively after the interval, with Sevcik's 20-yard shot beating Kepa Arrizabalaga at the Chelsea goalkeeper's near post.
And soon afterwards, in the 55th minute, Sevcik produced an even better effort from similar range that flew into the top corner to give Slavia hope of a remarkable recovery.
But that was as good as it got for the visitors, with Sevcik scuffing a shot that might have seen him complete what would have been an astonishing hat-trick.
Get a daily dose of Birmingham News news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Birmingham News.
More InformationWASHINGTON, D.C.: President Donald Trump has granted TikTok another reprieve, extending the deadline for its Chinese parent company,...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: As the global weight-loss market explodes, drugmakers are now racing to solve a less visible problem: protecting...
HAYWARD, California: In a significant step toward its commercial debut, Amazon-owned Zoox has unveiled its first factory dedicated...
SAO PAULO, Brazil: Brazil is taking confident steps to restore its dominance in global poultry exports after declaring its commercial...
NEW YORK, New YorK - U.S. stocks closed mixed on Friday, with gains and losses modest, as investors and traders weighed up the escalation...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Retail sales dropped sharply in May as consumer spending slowed after a strong start to the year, primarily due to...
KANANASKIS, Alberta: With key tariff deadlines approaching, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week that finalizing the...
LONDON, U.K.: On June 15, Britain named Blaise Metreweli as the first woman to lead the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known...
NEW DELHI, India: The flight data recorder from the crashed Air India plane was found on June 13. This vital discovery may help investigators...
By Reena Bhardwaj Washington DC [United States], June 22 (ANI): The recent joint military action against Iran by the United States...
By Reena Bhardwaj Washington DC [United States], June 22 (ANI): United States' former Treasury Department official and a terror...
By Reena Bhardwaj Washington, DC [USA], June 22 (ANI): Former Pentagon official Michael Rubin has noted that Iran would 'suffer the...