Chelsea 5-2 Leicester City
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| Meireles and Torres celebrating |
Fernando Torres scored two goals as Chelsea beat
Leicester City 5-2 at Stamford Bridge to advance to the FA cup semi-finals.
The first real goal scoring opportunity of the match came
from Leicester City striker, Jermaine Beckford, who had a shot from the edge of
the penalty area that curled wide of the right hand post.
The first goal came 11 minutes into the match from Cahill,
after he headed Juan Mata’s corner into the back of the net from close range.
For his celebration, Cahill revealed a ‘Pray for Muamba’
shirt, showing support towards Bolton Wanderers midfielder, Fabrice Muamba, who
tragically collapsed when his side played against Tottenham Hotspur in the FA
cup yesterday.
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| Cahill showing his support for Muamba |
Five minutes later, Salomon Kalou scored Chelsea’s second
goal of the day from a Fernando Torres pass. Kalou slotted the ball into the
bottom left corner from inside the box.
Leicester City’s Paul Gallagher had a shot from the edge
of the box two minutes later, which went wide of the right hand post.
Leicester City continued to press towards opening their scoring
tally, with opportunities by Neil Danns and Beckford coming close throughout
the rest of the first half.
Chelsea weren’t without their chances either, as Torres
and Daniel Sturridge had occasions where they could have increased Chelsea’s
lead, only to be stopped by the hard working Leicester City defence.
After the start of the second half, Mata was substituted for
Florent Malouda. He nearly made an instant impact on the game as he had a shot
towards the bottom right corner of the goal, causing Leicester City goalkeeper Kasper
Schmeichel to make a save.
Chances came and went from both sides until finally
Torres broke the dead lock in the second half and ended his goal drought by passing
a ground cross by Raul Meireles into the bottom left corner of the net.
That goal was Torres’s first goal since October 2011,
ending his goal drought that lasted 24 matches in all competitions.
However, on the 78 minute, Leicester City pulled one back
through Beckford. After a poor through ball by Chelsea’s Michael Essien,
Leicester City went on the counter attack which resulted in a Beckford goal
from the rebound of Danns shot from outside the box that had hit the post.
Seven minutes after the Leicester City goal, Chelsea
restored their three goal cushion thanks to a second goal by Torres.
Assisted by a Meireles corner, Torres managed to head the
ball from the far left edge of the six yard box despite being marked by two
players, into the far right corner of the goal.
Three minutes later, Leicester City midfielder Ben
Marshall scored his first goal for Leicester City, one which could be a
contender for goal of the season.
From around 30 yards out, Marshall smashed the ball into
the top right corner of the net and out of reach of Petr Cech.
Meireles wrapped up the scoring with a goal in the 90
minute thanks to a Torres pass making the final score 5-2 to Chelsea.
Torres not being selfish and going for his hat-trick,
decided to pass the ball across the box to Meireles who passed the ball into the
bottom left corner of Schmeichel’s goal.
For their remaining games in the npower championship, Leicester
City will focus on fighting for a place in the playoffs but it will be tough as
they are eight points adrift of 6th place with only ten games
remaining.
With this win, Chelsea advance to the FA cup
semi-finals at Wembley, to play against either Tottenham Hotspur or Bolton
Wanderers on the 14/15 April.
twitter - @ConorJPorter
twitter - @ConorJPorter
