FA Youth Cup Semi-Final, First Leg
                 White Hart Lane, Tottenham
               Thursday 5th March 2015, 7.45pm

                   SPURS     v     CHELSEA
                (White/Blue)      (All Blue)
                 4-1-3-1-1          4-3-3

                    2(1)             0(0)

              Thomas Glover  1  Bradley Collins
         Kyle Walker-Peters  2  Ola Aina
               Anton Walkes  3  Fikayo Tomori
                  Luke Amos  4  Ruben Sammut
          Christian Maghoma  5  Jay Dasilva
     Cameron Carter-Vickers  6  Charlie Colkett
          Zenon Stylianides  7  Tammy Abraham
              Charlie Owens  8  Charly Musonda
            Shayon Harrison  9  Dominic Solanke
           Joshua Onomah(C) 10  Kyle Scott(C)
             Ismail Azzaoui 11  Isaiah Brown

             Joseph Muscatt 12  Jeremie Boga
                                (11)65Mins
             Alfie Whiteman 13  Jared Thompson
                Armani Daly 14  Joshua Grant
             Marcus Edwards 15  Mukhtar Ali
                 (11)74Mins
           Kazaiah Sterling 16  Kasey Palmer
                  (8)57Mins     (10)55Mins

Scorers:-
           Onomah 40
           Sterling 83 

Booked:-
           Amos 75(Foul)

Coach:-
           K. McKenna           J. Edwards

Attendance:- 2235

Referee:– L. Collins
Assistants:– D. Leach & I. Cooper
Fourth Official:– C. Brook

It was a chilly evening for the meeting at White Hart Lane of these two London rivals. Chelsea have a grip on the Cup, having won it three times in the last five seasons and losing once. They are the team to beat having won the Academy League South this season doing the double over Spurs in the process. Spurs lost at Cobham only five days ago.

Spurs lined up with Glover in goal behind the first choice pairing of Maghoma and Carter-Vickers with Walker-Peters at right back and Walkes on the left. Amos anchored the midfield with Owens, Stylianides and Azzaoui in front of him and Onomah behind Harrison up front. It was interesting to see that Chelsea started four players from Saturday, whilst Spurs used two with four on the bench.

Spurs kicked off the first half attacking the Park Lane and had the only effort of the half that required a keeper to save. Harrison got through the "Blues"' defence, only for Collins to save with his legs after only a minute. Five minutes later Azzaoui fired wide as both defences snuffed out most of the dangerous attacks.

Scott fired well over and Abrahams saw his effort blocked for a corner. Solanke fired wide as the visitors' midfield settled into a containing role. A Walker-Peters throw in to Harrison was played into Owens who shot wide. Aina got forward to fire wide before Musonda also was off target before Spurs made the break. Harrison fed Onomah to the right and Chelsea failed to block properly with the ball popping out for Onomah to run onto and drive low under Collins.

Chelsea had a chance to equalise when Brown lifted the ball into the area where Solanke was in space but Walker-Peters got across to intercept.

There were no changes for the start of the second half which saw Chelsea come out more, trying to get the goal back. Solanke was wide at the near post in the first minute. Onomah used the extra space given by the visitors to fire wide. Musonda fired over from a corner played back to him before Glover saved from Brown when Solanke set him up. Brown then returned the favour for Solanke to head over before Spurs made their first change.

Sterling replaced Owens as Spurs switched to 4-4-2 with a midfield diamond. Glover made a great save when Solanke turned and shot in the area before Palmer fired over. Brown was replaced by Boga, who scored on Saturday. After Palmer had shot over again, Spurs replaced Azzaoui with Edwards who moved to the right side of the diamond with Stylianides switching to the left.

Amos got the only yellow of the game when he stopped a Chelsea break having advanced into the visitors' half. Glover saved at the near post from Dasilva after his first effort was blocked. Walkes tackled Aina near the half-way line with the ball running to Harrison. The striker quickly released Sterling to his left to get into the area and drive low across Collins into the net to double Spurs' lead. Stylianides fired in a free kick to the near post which was turned out for a corner by a defender as time was running out.

Spurs held on to their two goal lead which they will need next week in the second leg. It was a tightly fought game and the second leg is likely to be the same. Chelsea are a big strong side and are likely to create more goal chances and while the Spurs back four did very well to contain them they will get chances. If Chelsea come out in the second leg they will of course give space to Spurs who will hopefully be able to take advantage. Manchester City have to play the first leg of their semi-final against Leicester. Leicester are due to play Spurs at Hotspur Way on Saturday in Spurs' last league game before the second phase. Spurs have already qualified for the top group.

Ray

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