Arsenal and Chelsea confirmed their tickets to the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley in mid-July on Sunday, beating Sheffield United (2-1) and Leicester (1-0).
They join Manchester United, winner Saturday in Norwich (2-1, after extra time), while the draw for the semi-finals will be held at half time of the last quarter between Newcastle and Manchester City (5.30 p.m. GMT).
. Chelsea depresses Leicester:
Frank Lampard’s men made a double good deal on Sunday, securing their place in the last four of the FA Cup by damaging the morale of their rival in the podium race.
The Foxes, who have only done two draws against poorly ranked Watford and Brighton since resuming the championship, have seen the Blues come back 3 points from 3rd place.
And after the disillusionment of the elimination in the semifinals of the League Cup by a relegation, Aston Villa, in January, they miss the opportunity to qualify for their first semi-final of Cup since 1982.
Deprived of their master of play, James Maddison, spared, the men of Brendan Rodgers have only too rarely threatened the Londoners, except for the first 10 minutes when Chelsea seemed to doze.
Frank Lampard had turned a lot after two consecutive league victories, the last against Manchester City (2-1), Thursday, offered the title to Liverpool.
The coach had left Olivier Giroud at rest, on the other hand establishing Kurt Zouma in defense for his first minutes since the resumption.
Chelsea gradually took the measure of the match and it had already taken a beautiful parade by Kasper Schmeichel in half an hour of play to deflect above the crossbar a powerful strike from Christian Pulisic in the area.
Lampard took advantage of the break and the temporary regulation authorizing 5 changes to make three at the break.
Winning poker since one of the entrants, Ross Barkley, scored the decisive goal on a beautiful center of Willian shortly after the hour of play (1-0, 63rd).
For his first season on the bench of a Premier League team, Lampard could add, to a qualification in the Champions League very well started, a trophy with this cup they had won two years ago.
. Arsenal by the small door:
If the way of Europe seems blocked for the Gunners on the championship side, with their nine points behind Wolverhampton, 5th, despite a late match, the latter are only two matches away from Europe via the Cup.
Without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, left on the bench, nor Matteo Guendouzi, still not returned in the small papers of Mikel Arteta, Nicolas Pépé assured the main by transforming a penalty awarded after recourse to VAR (1-0, 25th).
The video assistants also played an important role by rightly refusing two goals to the premises for offside (10th and 58th).
The Blades, in great difficulty since the resumption of the championship and who could have equalized at the start of the second period (55th, 58th), finally had to wait for yet another defensive error this season of the Gunners to restore a semblance of sporting justice.
On a long touch, Sead Kolasinac released his teammate Shkodran Mustafi, the ball reaching the attacker David McGoldrick who equalized acrobatically (1-1, 87th).
But the relief from this well-deserved goal has caused a culpable relaxation.
And it was finally the Real Madrid midfielder Ceballos on loan that the Blades’ defense left free to sink into the area, which saved its team 30 minutes of extra play by deceiving Henderson closely ( 2-1, 90th + 1).
.
