Chelsea’s Under-19s beat Barcelona on penalties to reach the final of the Uefa Youth League again.
The young Blues won 5-4 in the shootout after a 2-2 draw in Nyon, Switzerland, where they will face Porto in the final on Monday.
Luke McCormick equalised midway through the second half but Anssumane Fati’s second goal of the game looked like taking Barca through.
However, Chelsea hit back again, with substitute Charlie Brown scoring with five minutes remaining – his 15th Youth League goal, making him the joint-highest scorer in the tournament’s short history.
The pendulum swung Barcelona’s way again when Conor Gallagher lifted his penalty over the bar in the shootout.
But Nicolás González Iglesias did exactly the same, before keeper Karlo Ziger’s save from Juan Miranda clinched victory for Chelsea.
The west London side were under pressure from the start and Ziger produced two early saves to keep Barcelona at bay
Chelsea then began to impose themselves and almost took the lead when Joseph Colley’s 19th-minute header was cleared off the line.
Barca took the lead a couple of minutes later.
The impressive Konrad De La Fuente breezed past Juan Castillo on the right and sent in a low cross for Fati to score from close range.
Skipper McCormick led the fightback after the interval, almost equalising when he superbly burst past two challenges before seeing a shot saved by Arnau Tenas.
An appalling mistake by keeper Tenas led to Chelsea’s leveller.
He kicked the ball straight to Daishawn Redan, who unselfishly teed up McCormick to add the finish.
Chelsea were behind again just two minutes later, this time after an error by Ziger, who spilled a shot, enabling Fati to score what looked like being the winner until Brown struck.
Billy Gilmour lifted the ball into the Barcelona box and Marc Guehi showed great composure to nod down to Brown, who volleyed into the roof of the net.
That took the tie to penalties and Brown, Colley, Gilmour, Ian Maatsen and Tino Anjorin all scored from the spot before Ziger’s decisive save.
This post was last modified on 26/04/2019