Chelsea comfortably progress to the Carabao Cup final

Chelsea have booked their spot in the Carabao Cup final with a 1-0 win at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium to face either Arsenal or Liverpool.

Action: Spurs had everything to do at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to overturn a 2-0 aggregate deficit. However, the home side struggled defensively with Chelsea looking dangerous whenever they had the ball.

After just 10 minutes Romelu Lukaku was through on goal but Pierluigi Gollini did well to get in the way of the Belgian’s shop.

However, Gollini could have done better from a Chelsea corner. Mason Mount’s ball should have been cleared by the Italian goalkeeper but instead, Antonio Rüdiger got there first to head home and give the Blues a 3-0 advantage.

The home side thought they may have a way back into the fixture when referee Andre Marriner pointed to the spot after Rüdiger brought down Pierre Hojbjerg. However, VAR intervened as the foul had in fact happened just outside the box. The resulting freekick came to nothing.

Antonio Conte’s side improved after the break and were once again awarded a penalty. This time for a foul by Kepa Arrizabalaga on Lucas Moura. VAR once again came into play to correctly reverse the decision – Kepa had won the ball fairly.

It was third time unlucky for the next VAR call for Spurs. Harry Kane thought he’d equalised on the night when he tapped home into an empty net only for the England forward to be offside. That call seemed to take the wind of Spurs' sails but they will feel they put in a much better performance overall than they did at Stamford Bridge last week.

Man of the Match: Malang Sarr was faultless in defence for Chelsea and put in a great performance. Kepa and Rüdiger also deserve a mention for their displays.

Going to Wembley!#EFL | #CarabaoCup | @ChelseaFC pic.twitter.com/TMZ0tXfF37

— Carabao Cup (@Carabao_Cup) January 12, 2022