Chelsea have booked themselves a FA Cup
quarter-final date against Manchester United at Old Trafford next week
after comfortably easing past Middlesbrough 2-0 in the 5th
Round. Boro were handed the advantage of playing at home in the cup-tie
but a cold Riverside Stadium couldn’t help the one-time Premier League
mainstay prolong their involvement in the FA Cup as Chelsea netted twice in the 2nd
half to seal their progress to the lat-eight. Ramires and Victor Moses
were the scorers on the night, with the Brazilian’s opener in the 51st minute deflecting off Fernando Torres while Moses then rounded off the scoring with a 2nd in the 73rd minute.
Rafa Benitez put out a much-changed line-up for the
cup game as the likes of Paulo Ferreira and Yossi Benayoun were handed
rare starts while John Terry was handed a start in a bid to regain his
match fitness. Tony Mowbray’s struggling Boro side took their time to
get a foothold in the game but when they put together a few passes they
managed to create a couple of brilliant chances, with Scott McDonald
first heading wide from a good position before Mustapha Carayol caused
Petr Cech to spill a strike.
The visitors upped the ante after the restart and were rewarded with
the opening goal six minutes in, albeit with a touch fortune. Ramires
tried his luck from well outside the area and fortunately for the
Brazilian, a unknowing Fernando Torres deflected the ball past Jason
Steele in the Boro goal.
Eden Hazard was then introduced to finish off the home side and the Belgian was duly involved in the 2nd goal as a he provided the final pass in a slick move, setting up Moses for a simple finish form close range.
Chelsea now face a tough trip to Old Trafford in
the next round in what is a mouth-watering tie between two of England’s
biggest clubs, as for Boro and Mowbray it Is back to the
Teams:
Middlesbrough: Steele (Gk), Bikey (Hines 35’),
Friend, McManus, Williams, Leadbitter, Bailey, Haroun, Carayol (Zemmama
74’), Main (Miller 62’), McDonald
Chelsea: Cech (Gk), Ivanovic, Ferreira, Terry,
Bertrand, Ramires, Oscar (Marin 79’), Moses (Luiz 76’), Benayoun (Hazard
58’), Ake, Torres
Final Score: Middlesbrough 0-2 Chelsea (Ramires 51’, Moses 73’)
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