\n<\/p>\n
A lot of the talk this morning has been about Xabi Alonso closing in on a move to Chelsea. And there is no doubt that would be a positive. But let\u2019s not forget that the Blues are also playing in an FA Cup final against Manchester City.<\/p>\n
This is a game that could have major long-term implications as well, and might not be just another chance to win silverware. Chelsea\u2019s chances of making the Champions League are as good as over. If they win the FA Cup, they will at least qualify for the Europa League. Of course, that is easier said than done against a Man City team that has made winning a second habit under Pep Guardiola over the past decade.<\/p>\n
Full-time<\/strong> Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea. Guardiola\u2019s side win another trophy. The Blues lose at Wembley. And with that, they might have bid goodbye to European football as well.<\/p>\n 90+3\u2032 Chelsea have not had a decent chance since that Fernandez effort 20 minutes ago.<\/p>\n 90+1\u2032 Delap has a decent chance but heads it miles wide. Probably his first touch of the ball since coming on.<\/p>\n 90\u2032 Chelsea can\u2019t get a hold of the ball here.<\/p>\n 87\u2032 City look like the ones chasing the game while Chelsea can\u2019t find the way out of their own box.<\/p>\n 85\u2032 Chelsea have a horror show at the back. Sanchez forced to make another save.<\/p>\n 84\u2032 Chelsea need to score. City look more likely to score. A lot more polished on and off the ball.<\/p>\n 77\u2032 Both team have chances but can\u2019t make the most of it. A third penalty shot for Chelsea denied.<\/p>\n 73\u2032 Enzo Fernandez almost equalises. Just over the bar.<\/p>\n 71\u2032 GOAL<\/strong>! Semenyo scores. Splendid finish. Chelsea 0-1 City.<\/p>\n 69\u2032 Another corner to City. After Chelsea dominated for about 15 minutes, Guardiola\u2019s side are now back on the front foot.<\/p>\n 67\u2032 Corner to Manchester City. Chelsea deal with it.<\/p>\n 56\u2032 Free-kick to Chelsea in a prime spot to swing it in. Yellow card for Khusanov as well.<\/p>\n 53\u2032 Gusto has acres of space on the flank after some good play by Palmer but the cross is poor.<\/p>\n 51\u2032 Colwill almost caught on the ball in front of an open goal. Fortunately, it is a foul by Semenyo. Chelsea need to be careful with playing out from the back though. They have blundered more than once already without paying the price.<\/p>\n 47\u2032 Semenyo\u2019s header over the goal but a wake-up call for Chelsea right after the break.<\/p>\n HT Chelsea 0-0 Manchester City<\/p>\n 45\u2019+2\u2032 Joao Pedro goes down in the box and wants a penalty. VAR has a look and it is not given. Chelsea have a reason to complain though. Anywhere else on the pitch, that is a foul.<\/p>\n 44\u2032 Brilliant positioning from Robert Sanchez to deny Haaland. 0-0<\/p>\n 40\u2032 Corner for Chelsea. Palmer puts in the cross and City head it out. Finally some decent football and control for the Blues.<\/p>\n 32\u2032 YELLOW CARD for Marc Cucurella. Breaks the counter-attack and takes one for the team.<\/p>\n 29\u2032 YELLOW CARD for Enzo Fernandez. Wins the ball but catches Bernardo Silva on the follow through.<\/p>\n 27\u2032 Manchester City find the back of the net. But it is offside. Another let off for Chelsea. But they can\u2019t keep playing like this.<\/p>\n 23\u2032 Chelsea make a mess trying to play out from the back and it breaks to Erling Haaland in the box. Luckily, he misses.<\/p>\n 20\u2032 Chelsea\u2019s first meaningful attack. Corner.<\/p>\n 14\u2032 Some good moments for Chelsea, a tight offside call when Joao Pedro was through behind the defence, but mostly, it is still Manchester City on the front foot.<\/p>\n 10\u2032 Manchester City starting to dominate.<\/p>\n 7\u2032 Chelsea allow Semenyo too much time and space in the box. Thankfully, nothing materialises from it. 0-0<\/p>\n 3\u2032 Brilliant pass from Colwill to break the lines but Chelsea can\u2019t make the most of it.<\/p>\n 1\u2032 We are underway at Wembley. Manchester City have the early possession of the ball.<\/p>\n The line-ups for the game have been announced and we got it spot on with our predicted XI. Robert Sanchez has returned in goal. Then there is a three man backline of Wesley Fofana, Levi Colwill and Jorrel Hato. Malo Gusto and Marc Cucurella are playing as the two wing-backs on the day.<\/p>\n Reece James makes his first start since returning from injury and he will be playing in midfield alongside Moises Caicedo.<\/p>\n Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez have started just behind Joao Pedro. One would imagine that one of those three will have to get on the scoresheet today if Chelsea are to have any hope of winning the FA Cup final. Of course, we would like to be proven wrong.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A lot of the talk this morning has been about Xabi Alonso closing in on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9842","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\/9842","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=9842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}