{"id":1610,"date":"2026-04-28T05:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T05:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=1610"},"modified":"2026-04-28T05:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T05:43:09","slug":"chelsea-see-off-leeds-with-competent-1-0-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=1610","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea see off Leeds with competent 1-0 win"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Chelsea beat Leeds 1-0 at Wembley in the FA Cup semi final after a professional and mature showing from the Blues.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you enjoy Chelsea News coverage and want to see more of it, add us as a preferred source on Google to make us a favourite and see more of our content.<\/em><\/p>\n

It was a pretty balanced start to the game \u2013 both teams testing each other and battling for control in the midfield.<\/p>\n

The first big chance of the game came when Brendan Aaronson was played in on goal after some sloppy play in Chelsea\u2019s midfield. He should have scored, but Robert Sanchez put out a foot and saved it. It was a warning to the Blues that they needed to up their game, and the next chance did come their way. Joao Pedro lashed a shot off the foot of the post which was centimetres away from finding the net.<\/p>\n

The breakthrough came soon after. A loose ball in midfield was snapped up by Pedro Neto, who lifted a cross in to find Enzo Fernandez, who timed his run perfectly and then headed in.<\/p>\n

The second half saw the Blues come out strong too, with a couple of early chances that they really should have put away. The question was, would they turn that into a second, crucial goal; or would they end up rueing those missed chances?<\/p>\n

In the end, Calum McFarlane\u2019s team were able to slow the game down and control things as the minutes passed. A little bit of gamesmanship went a long way, with plenty of breaks in play and tactical subs.<\/p>\n

Leeds tried their best, and Robert Sanchez had to make some saves, but the Whites couldn\u2019t break through.<\/p>\n

MOTM \u2013 Joao Pedro<\/strong><\/p>\n

Analysis<\/h2>\n

You can look at the tactics all you like, what really happened in this game was that the Chelsea players started to actually try again. They put in the effort, and they got the result.<\/p>\n

McFarlane returned them to a much more simple game plan, with Robert Sanchez playing long and playing a much lower block. These were straightforward but effective changes in a game we just needed to get a result and restore some confidence.<\/p>\n

Teams<\/h2>\n

Chelsea<\/strong>:<\/strong> Sanchez; Gusto, Chalobah, Tosin, Cucurella; Caicedo, Lavia (Santos 65); Neto, Fernandez (c), Garnacho (Palmer 71); Joao Pedro (Delap 90+8)<\/span>
Unused subs<\/strong>:<\/strong> Sharman-Lowe, Acheampong, Fofana, Hato, Essugo, Derry<\/span><\/p>\n

Leeds United:<\/strong> Perri; Justin (Rodon ht), Bijol (Stach ht), Struijk; Bogle, Ampadu (c), Tanaka (Nmecha 74), Gudmundsson; Aaronson (Longstaff 86), Okafor (Gnonto 74); Calvert-Lewin<\/span>
Unused subs:<\/strong> Darlow, Bornauw, James, Piroe<\/span><\/p>\n

Stats<\/h2>\n
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\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Statistic<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/th>\n

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Chelsea<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/th>\n

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Leeds<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n

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Ball Possession<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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54%<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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46%<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Expected Goals (xG)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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0.38<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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0.84<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Total Shots<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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8<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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10<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Shots on Target<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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2<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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3<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Big Chances<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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2<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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2<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Big Chances Missed<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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1<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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2<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Accurate Passes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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425 (86%)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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323 (81%)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Fouls Committed<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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14<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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13<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Corners<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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6<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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4<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Quote of the game<\/h2>\n

\u201cWe knew they were at their most dangerous when we had deep possession, they were going to come man for man. We wanted to negate that by going longer, force them to drop and create a bit of fear in them, because we\u2019ve got athletes in our top line.\u201d \u2013 McFarlane on negating Leeds\u2019 press.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
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More Stories about Calum McFarlane<\/span><\/header>\n
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\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\"Joao<\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\"Chelsea's<\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\"Tosin<\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chelsea beat Leeds 1-0 at Wembley in the FA Cup semi final after a professional…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}