Chelsea are through to this season’s Carabao Cup game final after they defeated Spurs 0-1 (3-0 aggregate) n Wednesday night.
Antonio Rudiger scored the only goal of the night, to make sure that Chelsea book a date at Wembley for the Carabao Cup game final with either Arsenal or Liverpool who plays tomorrow.
Antonio Rudiger headed home from Mason Mount’s corner after 18 minutes.
It was a night of frustration for Spurs and their former Chelsea manager Antonio Conte as they saw two penalties, awarded by referee Andre Marriner for fouls on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Lucas Moura, correctly overturned by VAR.
Harry Kane also saw a goal ruled out for offside in an improved second-half performance from Spurs but Chelsea always looked in control – and once they had extended their aggregate lead early on, they were able to control affairs without hitting their best form.
The game was paused late on following a medical emergency in the crowd and on resumption Chelsea completed the formalities of their victory.
Conte felt the need to rest experienced keeper and captain Hugo Lloris with the tie still on the line and play deputy Pierluigi Gollini instead.
Gollini distinguished himself when he saved with his legs from Romelu Lukaku early on but was at fault when he made an unconvincing dash to claim Mount’s corner, a move that ended badly when the ball was diverted into net via Rudiger’s back.
This was surely a job that required the presence of Lloris when Spurs’ margin of error was virtually non-existent.
Spurs did mount a challenge of sorts after the break but it was too little, too late – and this was a mediocre display that only illustrated how much work Conte needs to do.