Chelsea advance to the Semi Final stage of the Europa Cup
Chelsea secured
their progress into the last four of the Europa League with
a 3-2 defeat in the second leg of their quarter-final against Rubin Kazan, winning the tie 5-4 on aggregate.
Ivan Marcano gave the Russians hope with a
thumping header after the break but Victor Moses quickly put Chelsea back in
the driving seat with their second minutes later, only for Gokdeniz Karadeniz
to then level the score with another header.
Bribas Natcho gave Rubin the lead on the night
from the spot but Chelsea managed to hold on thereafter to reach the
semi-finals.
Rafa Benitez made seven changes to the side
which beat Sunderland on Sunday with Juan Mata and Eden Hazard dropping down to
the bench. Nathan Ake came in to midfield to make only his second start for the
Blues while Paulo Ferreira also made a rare appearance at left-back.
The visitors made one change from the first leg
at Stamford Bridge, Jose Rondon replaced Vladimir Dyadyun in attack.
Rubin started the game on the front foot and
came close when Roman Eremenko's shot was blocked inside the box inside the
first five minutes.
But Chelsea were ahead moments later when Torres chased
Frank Lampard's long ball over the hosts' defence whilst managing to lose his
marker, before embarrassing Sergey Ryzhikov by cheekily lifting the ball over
his head from 30 yards out.
From then on the first half was all Chelsea's;
Benitez's men kept the ball for long periods and were quick to close down their
opponents whenever they tried to pass through midfield.
However, right on the stroke of half-time the
Russian side had their best moment; Keredeniz brought down Natcho's pass inside
the box but Petr Cech got down superbly to touch the Turk's prod past his far
post.
That late first-half chance gave them plenty of
belief going into the second and they made it count six minutes after the
break.
Marcano towered high over Ramires and powered a header
past Cech into the far post from a well-taken Rubin free kick out wide on the
right.
But the response from Benitez's men was emphatic
as Moses, after a clever one-two with Ramires, curled a
fine effort past Ryzhikov shortly after.
Rubin, though, provided an instant reply of
their own. Captain Karadeniz lead
by example, sneaking in behind David Luiz and heading in from close range.
The visitors then scored again from the spot; Cesar
Azpilicueta needlessly brought down Aleksandr Ryazantsev in
the area allowing Natcho to dispatch his second penalty of the tie.
Rubin threw everything they had at Chelsea in
the final stages but it was not enough to break the Blues' resolve, who held on
to progress into Friday's semi-final draw.
source: goal.com
