Coach Sarri sent two pillars Kante and Eden Hazard on the field from the start in the reception of Slavia Prague at Stamford Bridge this morning, April 19. Previously, in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-final, the duo only came on as substitutes in the second half.
With home advantage and the strongest squad, Chelsea easily imposed their playing style and completely controlled the game. In the 5th minute, The Blues opened the scoring thanks to Pedro.
5 minutes later, Chelsea organized another methodical attack, Hazard crossed and Pedro rushed in. But somehow, Dele came back.
Pedro continued to explode with an assist for Giroud to score to help Chelsea take a 3-0 lead in the 17th minute. The Spaniard marked a great day with his own double and helped Chelsea take a 4-1 lead in the 27th minute.
Between Pedro's assist and goal, Slavia Prague had a goal to reduce the score thanks to Tomas Soucek's header (in the 25,25 minute).
Playing well in the first half and leading Slavia Prague with a score of 4-1, Chelsea proactively controlled the game's speed in the second half, waiting for the opponent to raise the squad to lurk them to join the Czech national team.
However, a surprise happened, within just 4 minutes from 51 to 54, Sevcik scored 2 consecutive goals with long-range shots to help Slavia Prague reduce the score to 3-4.
Here, Chelsea fans are starting to worry because if they score 2 more goals in this open game, Slavia Prague will snatch the ticket from Chelsea thanks to the away goal rule.
With excitement and determination, the visitors from the Czech Republic put a lot of pressure on Kepa's goal. However, everything the away team did was stopped at a dangerous situation and could not be converted into a goal.
After losing 3-5 in the first leg (losing 0-1), Slavia Prague have failed to make another Europa League miracle this season. Before that, the Czech team shocked in the 1/16 and 1/8 rounds when they eliminated 2 opponents who were considered much stronger, Genk and Sevilla.
As for Chelsea, bypassing Slavia Prague to advance to the semi-finals, coach Sarri's team will meet Eintracht Frankfurt in the round of 4 of the strongest teams in Europa League. Also in the match last night, at home Eintracht Frankfurt defeated Benfica with a score of 2-0, winning a ticket to the semi-finals thanks to the away goal rule (losing 2-4 in the first leg in Portugal).
