Chelsea have made the semi-finals of the Europa League after their 5-4 aggregate victory over Russian side Rubin Kazan at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow.
The Blues started the match brightly when Frank Lampard’s pass found Fernando Torres, who seems to enjoy being the man behind the mask, and the Spaniard found the net from long range after chipping the ball over the Kazan keeper.
The home side rarely bothered Petr Cech’s goal during the first half of the match but it was in the second that the game really came to life and Chelsea pulled through despite a few hairy moments in defence.
Six minutes into the second half Rubin Kazan were on the scoresheet when our sloppy defence allowed Ivan Marcano to head home from a corner, but his joy was short-lived as Victor Moses linked with Ramires to fire in Chelsea’s second of the match which left Rubin Kazan a mountain to climb.
The Chelsea defence went walkabout, not for the first time, when the ball came into the box just after the hour mark and Gokhdeniz Karadeniz took advantage by heading the ball past Cech. Then Aleksandr Ryazantsev fell over in the proximity of Cesar Azpilicueta, demonstrated his acting skills and the referee awarded a penalty, which was dispatched by Bebras Natcho.
But even then they still needed two more goals to progress as Chelsea were not only ahead on aggregate but also on away goals, so we were more or less home and dry despite the defence in tatters.
The important things was that the job was done and the likes of Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Demba Ba (ineligible) will be fresh for the weekend as they played no part in tonight’s match, whilst players like Oscar, Branislav Ivanovic and John Obi Mikel spent little time on the field.
Who would you like to see us drawn against in the next round?
