Swansea City put in an excellent performance on Wednesday afternoon, holding onto their 2-0 aggregate lead in the English League Cup semifinal to defeat Chelsea on aggregate, following a 0-0 draw at the Liberty Stadium.
Swansea City vs. Chelsea: Final score 0-0, Swans heading to Wembley
A fairly straightforward 0-0 draw, in which Swansea attempted to hold on to their lead against an aggressive Chelsea side, turned into a bizarre match that involved a ballboy getting kicked by Eden Hazard.
The big story from this game should probably be Swansea's performance, or perhaps how Chelsea, despite all of their attacking talent, couldn't deliver a killer ball to beat the Swans' defense. Instead, this match will be remembered as that one time Eden Hazard kicked a ballboy.
Even though the game was a pretty open one, it was mostly devoid of chances, as both defenses played very well. Michu had Swansea's best opportunity to score in the 9th minute, when he was denied by Petr Cech after a through ball by Wayne Routledge. Chelsea battered the Swansea penalty area in the final 10 minutes of the first half, but failed to create a goal.
With his team still struggling to create, Rafa Benitez made an unorthodox sub, bringing on technically adept and aggressive central defender David Luiz for the more conservative and conventional Branislav Ivanovic. Luiz's passing was a plus for the Blues, but didn't help them unlock the Swansea defense.
The game’s big event game when Chris Foy decided to show a red card to Hazard, in the 80th minute. The ball rolled out of play in the 77th minute and Hazard attempted to retrieve it, but the ballboy shockingly refused to give it back to him and lied down on top of the ball. Hazard could have walked away and let the referee do his job, but instead decided to kick the ballboy in the side. Unsurprisingly, this earned him a sending off.
With just 10 men to attack with, Chelsea had no chance of pulling back two goals, and Swansea held on without a problem to clinch their first ever League Cup final berth.
See More:
