Chelsea 1 Manchester United 0
Perhaps there will be another time when José Mourinho can return to Stamford Bridge without the rancour and acrimony that accompanied this match. It might be a long time, however, judging by the bad feeling that gathered on another triumphant night for Chelsea and another ordeal for Mourinho at the ground that once meant so much to him.
By the time it was all done Antonio Conte’s team were in the semi-finals and, barring an almost implausible collapse in the Premier League, Chelsea’s manager is now two wins away from emulating Carlo Ancelotti and finishing his first season in London with the double.
N’Golo Kanté had scored the goal five minutes into the second half and, after that, it was always going to be difficult for Manchester United bearing in mind Ander Herrera had been sent off in the first half because of two bookable challenges in what looked suspiciously like a premeditated campaign to give Eden Hazard some preferential treatment.
The night’s hostilities brought Conte and Mourinho together on the touchline like two warring stags. A new managerial feud seems to be brewing and it cannot help Mourinho’s mood that Chelsea’s current manager keeps getting the better of them. This was the second time Mourinho has been back and he has lost both times, conceding five goals and not scoring once.
Along the way, there was also the hard evidence of how Mourinho’s relationship with the Chelsea supporters has soured. A manager with his trophy collection might have thought he was immune to the kind of vitriolic chants and abuse that could be heard behind his dugout. Mourinho responded by holding up three fingers – one for each league championship – and there was not a great deal of warmth between him and Conte even before the sending-off for Herrera gave the night an entirely differently complexion.
Herrera did not go without making his point to Michael Oliver and United can expect a summons from the Football Association because of the way a crowd of players in red angrily surrounded the referee. Mourinho was incensed and Phil Jones could be seen, in proximity to the Chelsea dugout, signalling that Hazard had dived. Yet it was foolish, in the extreme, from Herrera. The Spaniard had already been booked for a bodycheck on Hazard and midway through the first half it was clear Oliver had started to suspect United’s players were deliberately targeting the Belgian.
The referee was sufficiently concerned to hold up play after a foul from Phil Jones to bring over United’s captain, Chris Smalling, and make it clear that he would not tolerate any more. Play restarted and Herrera evidently did not believe the warning applied to him. Two touches later and Hazard was on the floor again, with Herrera holding up his hands to plead his innocence. However vociferous the protests, Herrera badly let down his team.
Soon afterwards, Mourinho and Conte could be seen screaming at one another on the touchline, separated only by the fourth official Mike Jones. This time, Mourinho had alleged Marcos Alonso had taken a dive. The argument was sufficient for Oliver to hold up play again and the body language of the two managers as they received their telling-off was a picture. Both men refused to make eye contact, standing with their backs slightly turned, studiously ignoring one another. It was a lesson in childish point-scoring.
A man down, Mourinho had reacted by taking off Henrikh Mkhitaryan and bringing on Marouane Fellaini to give his team a more robust edge. Jones had been operating as a deep-lying midfielder and Ashley Young was also under instructions to drop back from the left wing. United, in other words, spent parts of the night operating with a 6-2-1 system against a team that had won their previous 12 home games with an aggregate score of 38-6.
It was always going to be a difficult second half for the visitors but Mourinho is entitled to be disappointed about the nature of Chelsea’s goal. Kanté’s shot was struck cleanly but Paul Pogba had been slow to close him down and Marcos Rojo simply watched it go by. David de Gea had made a couple of outstanding saves in the first half to keep out Hazard and Gary Cahill but this time the ball swerved into the bottom corner. Kanté had been 25 yards out when he latched on to Willian’s pass and the goal came early enough after the restart to stop the crowd being filled with anxiety.
Chelsea looked comfortable until just before the hour when David Luiz’s mistake gave Marcus Rashford a chance to catch them out on the break. Rashford managed to elude Cahill but could not get his shot past Thibaut Courtois in the Chelsea goal.
That was a rare opening for United on a night when Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney and Anthony Martial were all missing and, for all their complaints about the red card, they were fortunate Valencia did not go the same way as Herrera when he dived in, two-footed on Kanté, the game’s outstanding performer. From Conte and Mourinho, there was not even a sideways look at the final whistle.
(Guardian service)
