Chelsea suffered a crushing 1-0 defeat to Manchester City on Saturday in the semifinals of the English FA Cup at Wembley.
The FA Cup was the Blues’ only hope of silverware this season.
The Blues lost out on the League Cup to Liverpool, and are not in the conversation for the English Premier League title at the moment, as they sit ninth and struggling to make the European places.
You could describe Manchester City as a wounded lion after they saw their treble hopes go down the drain with the excruciating Champions League quarter-final defeat to Real Madrid on penalties at the Etihad after the game ended 1-1 in the second leg.
With the first leg ending 3-3 at the Bernabeu, there wasn’t anything separating the two.
A goalless extra-time followed, and the Manchester club got eliminated on penalties.
So, the Blues were up against it, but being the fresher of the two, with City having played in that very difficult game in mid-week against Real Madrid, Chelsea came out firing, determined to pip the Manchester club to the FA Cup final and preserve their hopes of a title this season.
The Blues were confident after coming into the game on the back of a 6-0 win against Everton on Monday.
As has been typical of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, they had the lion’s share of the possession.
They could have gone ahead but Phil Foden was forced to put his shot wide by the Chelsea defence after De Bruyne put him through.
As the first half wore on, Chelsea had very good chances of their own, with Nicholas Jackson, Noni Madueke, and Cole Palmer, all coming close to breaking the deadlock, but the City defence held on.
In the second half, Chelsea had the better chances: Nicholas Jackson had two efforts thwarted by Stefan Ortega in the City goal early on, and after being put through on goal, in a foot race with Kyle Walker, the Senegalese fell over in the City box, but appeals for a penalty were waved away as the Englishman’s challenge was deemed legal.
Manchester City were playing in their sixth consecutive FA Cup semi-final, which is a record, and they were looking to keep their double hopes alive; thus, they put more pressure on the Blues late on.
The 84th minute saw Chelsea fans’ hearts broken after Bernado Silva scored what proved to be the winner.
Manchester City march on to the FA Cup final, awaiting the winner in the other semi-final match between their city rivals Manchester United and Championship club Coventry.
Meanwhile, Chelsea will now have to rely on a good finish in the Premier League with a chance of playing in Europe next season.
Chelsea fans are disappointed that the club will not be winning any trophies this season, and a European place finish will be well appreciated, but can the Blues do it?
Chelsea are currently 9th in the table, with seven matches to end their season.
Up for the Blues, after their FA Cup exit, is a mouth-watering London derby against title-chasing Arsenal.