Key events
79 min: It takes a while for the game to restart as a blue smoke bomb is chucked onto the pitch. Time for a leaf through the record books, and this scoreline matches the biggest win in a semi-final second leg, Liverpool’s 5-0 victory over Crystal Palace in 2001.
GOAL! Chelsea 5-0 Middlesbrough (Palmer 77); agg 5-1
Madueke and Chukwuemeka exchange passes down the right. Madueke can’t force home from a tight angle. Boro clear the resulting corner, only for Chelsea to come straight back at them. Gallagher makes good down the left, reaches the byline, and cuts back for Palmer, who opens his body and slots across Glover and into the bottom right.
75 min: … and so it continues. Hackney whistles an overhit on-target backpass that Glover traps near the goalline, and eventually clears, albeit with the whistles of mockery ringing in his ears.
73 min: Boro are nearly undone once more when passing out from the back. Glover plays a hospital pass to Fry, who has his back to goal, six yards out. Sterling races in from behind at 101mph. Sterling steals the ball but can’t force it home from a tight angle on the left. Just a corner, from which nothing comes. Boro have learned the square root of nowt from that first-half fiasco.
72 min: Caicedo goes off, Chukwuemeka comes on.
71 min: Boro’s second change of the evening: Howson is replaced by O’Brien.
69 min: … and that corner is a waste of time. But Chelsea come again, Palmer wedging down the middle towards Disasi, free on the spot. Any contact is surely a goal, but he swings at fresh air and that’s that.
68 min: Gallagher is sent free down the middle by Madueke’s raking pass. He hesitates, though, and can’t get a shot off. He’ll have to settle for a corner.
67 min: Chelsea ping it here, they ping it there. All very relaxing with this semi-final long over.
65 min: Gallagher and young right-back Gilchrist replace Chilwell and Broja.
64 min: Van Den Berg is booked for taking a cynical handful of Sterling’s shirt.
63 min: Howson passes down the left for Engel, who whistles a low ball through the Chelsea box. Silva eases Crooks away from it at the near post. Dijksteel recovers possession and tees up Rogers, whose shot from the edge of the box is blocked. As good as Boro have looked all night.
62 min: Petrovic, under no pressure, slaps a poor pass out of play on the left. Chilwell goes to bollock him for his carelessness, then remembers he’s the captain tonight and switches into encouragement mode instead. Clap clap clap!
60 min: Rogers tries to spin Silva down the left but only succeeds in bringing the veteran defender down. Boro’s only – extremely wafer-thin – hope was an early second-half goal, but they’ve carried no threat whatsoever.
58 min: Turns out they were looking at Madueke’s shoulder, not his ankle. In other news, I’ve been struck off by the GMC.
56 min: Palmer drops a shoulder on the edge of the D but can’t make enough space to shoot. The ball breaks to Fernandez, who flays a wild effort many miles over the bar.
54 min: Madueke, having been given a proper once-over on the touchline, is back on.
53 min: Silva is booked for dragging back Rogers, as the Boro striker battles down the right wing. Nothing comes of the resulting free kick, which sees the visitors load the box to little effect.
52 min: The corner is half cleared. Palmer then dances his way down the left touchline by nutmegging Hackney with a backheel (!) then overhitting the cross. Chilwell comes in from the other flank and sends a low swerving shot wide left.
51 min: Madueke gets back up and is able to trudge off. No sub is made yet, and Chelsea will take the corner with ten men.
50 min: Madueke’s hard work down the right wins Chelsea a corner, but it comes at a cost. He looks to have turned his ankle upon landing, and he’s in some distress. On comes the physio.
49 min: Glover is nearly closed down by Broja, but some neat footwork gets him out of bother just in time.
47 min: Chelsea start the second half where they left off, pressing hard, forcing Boro into a mild panic. Lines are cleared, but only just, with Sterling and Madueke buzzing around hectically. “I’m rereading Harry Pearson’s classic The Far Corner,” begins the discerning Charles Antaki, “and have coincidentally just reached the chapter on Middlesbrough v Peterborough United, Endsleigh Insurance League Division 1. There’s plenty there to cheer up Middlesbrough fans, if only by pointing out that they’ve had it far worse. Sample: ‘…despite close to a century of non-achievement club officials were still counseling the fans to be patient. Personally I felt we’ve been patient for long enough. By that stage even Gandhi would’ve nutted someone.’”
Chelsea get the second half started. Both teams have made a change, Madueke replacing Mudryk for the hosts, Forss making way for the more defensively minded Dijksteel.
Half-time entertainment. More Chelsea-infused joy can be found within.
HALF TIME: Chelsea 4-0 Middlesbrough (agg: 4-1)
A reminder that we’ll have extra time if the score is level after 90 minutes. It’s damage limitation for Boro now. Chelsea – who have been excellent, a subdued first ten minutes apart – are going to Wembley.
45 min: Boro have two more first-half minutes to suffer.
43 min: It’s nearly five as Boro again overplay in defence. Sterling presses, Palmer shoots, the effort is blocked. If any time ever needed to hear the half-time whistle, it’s Middlesbrough. They’re all over the shop now.
GOAL! Chelsea 4-0 Middlesbrough (Palmer 42); agg 4-1
Boro try playing out from the back. Glover to Barlaser to Hackney back to Barlaser … who overstretches on the edge of the D and slips over. Palmer strips the ball away, turns, and whips into the bottom left.
40 min: Crooks goes sliding in late and hard on Fernandez. No real need for it. A frustrated lunge that earns him a yellow card.
38 min: Everyone wants the ball now. Mudryk steams down the left and very nearly gets the better of Van Den Berg and Fry. Not quite. Boro in tatters right now.
