Chelsea beat Tottenham on penalties and reached the final of the Coupe de la Ligue

By Martin Herman

LONDON (Reuters) – Chelsea beat Manchester City in the League Cup final after winning a shoot-out at Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge on Thursday after a 2-2 draw in both games.

This is the result of a response from the players to the criticism of their coach Maurizio Sari this weekend.

Chelsea had lost 1-0 after the first round, but had won 2-1 on Thursday, thanks to Nigolo Canti and Aiden Hazard in the first period, allowing the team to advance.

Fernando Llorente scored for Tottenham in stoppage time in his team's only attempt to push the game into the shootout.

Chelsea scored a total of 20 goals on five occasions for Tottenham, but the guests managed to keep a shot on goal.

Christian Eriksson scored the first shot but his teammate Eric Dyer, England's champion in the 2018 World Cup win over Colombia, and Lucas Mora lost while Chelsea scored all the shots.

David Luiz, who gave the victory to Chelsea, opened the scoring to score the corner of the goal to push the stadium crowd to noisy celebrations.

This victory allowed Chelsea to play in a 15-year final in 17 years, in all competitions.

Harry Kane, striker Tottenham Hotspur, who missed a penalty in the first leg and DeLay Aye, was injured, as well as Sun Hyung-min, who plays for South Korea in the Asian Cup with all its strength, but the expectation of a title will inevitably be prolonged after the game.

After a 2-0 defeat against Arsenal on Saturday, Sari accused his players of being difficult to motivate and appealed to Belgian striker Hazard for more on the pitch.

But the Italian coach, who did not win a title during his training, said after a meeting Thursday: "I think they have responded well tonight.

"But I did not attack my players, I just said we had a problem, the reaction was very good but we have to have motivation now through continuity."

"We are disappointed but we have been very successful in reaching the semifinals in all these circumstances," said Tottenham coach Mauricio Pocetino.

"We are frustrated with defeat in this way, but it can happen, the players have the courage and I have to be proud of all the circumstances we have known," he said.

(Reuters)