Goalkeeper Jamal Blackman was Chelsea’s hero as they beat Manchester City on penalties at the Etihad Stadium to reach the Under-21 Premier League play-off final.
After the teams had drawn 1-1 after extra time, Ruben Loftus-Cheek scored the winning spot-kick as Dermot Drummy’s side prevailed 6-5 in the shoot-out with the help of two saves from Blackman.
Islam Feruz gave them an early lead in what turned out to be a thrilling semi-final, scoring with a close-range header after he was set up by Lewis Baker.
Isaiah Brown had two chances to double that lead but dragged an effort wide before seeing a header from Baker’s corner deflected onto the outside of the post.
John Swift and Kasey Palmer also had chances to make it 2-0, while at the other end Blackman produced a number of fine saves to keep City at bay.
Blackman was unable to prevent City’s 76th-minute equaliser – a tidy finish by Olivier Ntcham – but then pulled off his best save of the night, denying Thierry Ambrose with a superb one-handed stop.
After extra time failed to produce a goal, Brown and Andreas Christensen tucked away their penalties before Blackman saved from Seko Fofana.
After Baker and Swift both netted, Palmer needed to score to take Chelsea through.
Palmer’s penalty was saved, taking the shoot-out to sudden death, but Blackman then kept out Ntcham’s kick and Loftus-Cheek stepped up and clinched the victory.
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This post was last modified on 01/05/2014