Chelsea 1-1 (2-2 agg, 4-3 pens) Eintracht Frankfurt
Chelsea is through to the final of the 2019 Europa League after beating Eintracht Frankfurt on penalties, with Eden Hazard striking the decisive blow.
But Adi Hutter’s Eintracht can feel proud of their efforts on a night they pushed Chelsea to the limit. The Blues had the perfect start when Ruben Loftus-Cheek put them ahead, but Eintracht’s top scorer Luka Jovic levelled to take the tie to penalties.
Both sides had chances to win the game, with the visitors coming close in injury time, but the stage was set for Hazard to take the spoils with what could well be his last kick of a ball at Stamford Bridge.
Tonight’s other big Europa League 2019 news was the spectacular performance of Arsenal in Valencia, where Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang fired a hat-trick to take the Gunners to an all England final in Baku with a 3-7 aggregate win.
Highlights of the game
Eintracht knew they needed to score tonight, and thought they had on 15 minutes when Danny da Costa hit the sweetest of volleys towards the corner of the net, but Kepa made a stunning one handed save to turn it past the post.
Roared on by the Stamford Bridge crowd, Chelsea had two good chances to go ahead; First, Emerson crossed for Olivier Giroud and the Frenchman brought a smart save from Kevin Trapp. Then Eden Hazard centred a ball which David Luiz back headed towards the goal, only for Makoto Hasebe to make a spectacular goal-line clearance.
But the hosts didn’t have long to wait before they nudged ahead.
After seven great seasons for Chelsea, Eden Hazard finally looks to be on his way to Real Madrid, and so this could well have been his final game at Stamford Bridge. Sarri put him out on the wing, and it took him a while to make a big impact, but on 28 minutes he made his mark, beating two defenders and then feeding Ruben Loftus-Cheek who finished confidently, rolling the ball into the bottom corner.
The goals of Luka Jovic have fired Eintracht to a successful domestic campaign and he scored his tenth Europa League goal to level the scores soon after the break. He took a return pass from Mijat Gacinovic, cleverly threaded through the Chelsea defence before sliding the ball past Kepa.
That goal lifted the away fans and gave Frankfurt more belief, and Gacinovic tested Kepa with a volley which the Chelsea stopper palmed away. For the hosts, David Luiz tried his luck from distance but pulled his shot well wide. Giroud had a shot from way out which Trapp gathered at the second effort as normal time ran out.
The Germans peppered the Chelsea goal line in extra time with substitute Sebastien Haller having two efforts cleared off the line, and then Chelsea’s Davide Zappacosta tested Trapp with a blistering shot which the Frankfurt keeper saved to take the tie to penalties.
Chelsea skipped Cesar Azpilicueta missed his spot kick; but Kepa brought Chelsea level with a save from Martin Hinteregger, and put the hosts in charge with another stop from Goncalo Pacencia to set the stage.
Up stepped Eden Hazard, and as the whole crowd expected, the brilliant Belgian slotted home the winner.
Key statistics
The pre-match Europa League 2019 betting odds here at SBOBET had Chelsea as hot favourites to reach the final at odds of 1.36, while Frankfurt was at 7.00.
The Germans put up a mighty fight, and it went right down to the wire. But the Blues have made their first European final since 2013 after 120 minutes of end to end football.
No Frankfurt player has scored more goals in a European tournament than Luka Jovic who bagged his tenth, and can feel himself unlucky to end up on the losing side.
It won’t be much of a consolation, but Eintracht have scored in all seven of their away games in this Europa League.
What’s next?
Maurizio Sarri’s team guaranteed themselves a Champions League berth for next season with a 3-0 win over Watford last weekend; so they will be able to relax a little when they face a difficult task on the final day, away to Leicester City.
Eintracht Frankfurt is fourth in the Bundesliga and locked on 54 points with Bayer Leverkusen. Both have home games this weekend; Bayer hosts FC Schalke on Saturday before Eintracht hosts FSV Mainz on Sunday. That tussle for Champions League football looks likely to go to the final weekend, with Borussia Monchengladbach and VFL Wolfsburg still in the hunt.
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