×
  • Sports - Football - Scores & Fixtures
  • Updated: March 19, 2022

FA Cup: Lukaku, Ziyech Fire Chelsea Past Middlesbrough Into Semifinals

FA Cup: Lukaku, Ziyech Fire Chelsea Past Middlesbrough Into

romelu lukaku

Chelsea reached the FA Cup semifinals for the third successive season as a rare goal from Romelu Lukaku inspired a 2-0 win against Championship side Middlesbrough on Saturday.

In what could have been a potential upset, Thomas Tuchel's team were never troubled as they made it six successive victories since Roman Abramovich put the European champions up for sale.

Unsettled Belgian striker Lukaku opened the scoring with just his second goal in seven games.

Hakim Ziyech increased Chelsea's advantage before the interval at the Riverside Stadium.

The Blues killed off the quarterfinal with minimal fuss after that, ensuring a last four appearance at Wembley in April as they look to reach the final for a third consecutive year.

Chelsea are operating under a special licence allowing them to fulfil fixtures after the UK government sanctions on Abramovich in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A host of bidders submitted their offers to buy Chelsea from Abramovich before Friday's deadline, offering hope that their current predicament will soon be over.

Tuchel admits he is out of the loop with regards to the sale, but the German has impressively kept Chelsea's players focused amid the off-field turmoil.

Chelsea have won 12 of their past 13 matches, with the exception the League final penalty shoot-out loss against Liverpool.

It hasn't all been plain sailing and following a scathing response from Middlesbrough and even their own supporters, Chelsea had withdrawn their request for the quarterfinal to be played behind closed doors after they were denied the chance to sell their full allocation of tickets due to the sanctions.

Tuchel feared his squad would have to make a 10-hour bus journey to the match because of limits on the amount they can spend on away travel before the transition to a new owner.

But they were eventually allowed to fly to Teesside, where they comfortably avoided any FA Cup turbulence.

Related Topics

Join our Telegram platform to get news update Join Now

0 Comment(s)

See this post in...

Notice

We have selected third parties to use cookies for technical purposes as specified in the Cookie Policy. Use the “Accept All” button to consent or “Customize” button to set your cookie tracking settings