It was the cruelest of endings for Plymouth, a reminder that the FA cup is adept at making dreams into reality.
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After 150 years, the FA Cup still finds itself with new stories to tell. Here was a magnificent fourth-round tie that lurched one way then the other, that simply would not stick to your preconceptions of how these games were supposed to end. A 2-1 win for Chelsea over League One Plymouth means this is perhaps not one for the annals of this wonderful competition, but those who shivered through two hours of high drama at Stamford Bridge will never forget a match that resolutely refused to stick to the script.
As the Chelsea misses in the second half of normal time and early in extra time grew ever more preposterous, you could feel the inevitability of a Plymouth bolt from the blue, the classic tale of cup upset. Marcos Alonso seemed to have spoiled that but no matter, the visitors would rise again, winning a penalty with time running out. Kepa Arrizabalaga, once a laughing stock of a world’s most expensive goalkeeper, denied Ryan Hardie a place in FA Cup history.
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It was the cruelest of endings for Plymouth, a reminder that while this competition is adept at making dreams into reality, it is no less effective at crushing them in the most dramatic of fashions.
With Lukaku laboring, Chelsea found themselves in something of an infinite loop of the 92nd minute. Firmly parked on the edge of the Plymouth box, they spent most of the first half finding ever more imaginative ways to hit the frame of the goal. After a heavy touch by Lukaku Kovacic thumped an effort against the bar, Callum Hudson-Odoi flicked against the bar a cross by Hakim Ziyech, the most inventive of those tasked with breaking down the visitors wall.
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Not that there was nothing to the Plymouth game beyond retreating to their 18-yard box and hoping. The pressure applied at the top of the pitch by Jordon Garrick and Luke Jephcott helped to gum up Chelsea attacks; by the time the ball reached the danger area, the Plymouth defensive lines were set. Meanwhile, if any team could complain of rough treatment and cynical fouls it was the Pilgrims, whose every counter attack seemed to draw them a free kick on halfway off a despairing Chelsea leg.
WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT ?@gillesphey HEADS HOME FOR @only1argyle AGAINST @ChelseaFC ?#EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/26NBE9bJTQ
— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) February 5, 2022
If they had held on until the interval, this tie might well have concluded in different fashion. Eventually, however, the Chelsea pressure told. Numbers piled up on the right flank before Mason Mount crossed low to the near post, a flick of Cesar Azpilicueta’s trailing leg enough to finally beat Mike Cooper.
Further chances came and went into the second half, Azpilicueta denied a backheel brace by an offside flag, the outstanding Joe Edwards sprinting the length of the pitch to block substitute Kai Havertz when the hosts found empty space following a Plymouth corner. Cooper dived acrobatically to his right to push Mount’s shot over the bar. As those chances flew by, so did the weight of tension build on Chelsea shoulders.
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Plymouth for their part seemed liberated. They had already achieved far more than anyone could reasonably have expected against a team assembled at a cost of nearly half a billion dollars. They attacked the closing stages without fear. Steven Schumacher’s side never looked quite like winning the game but equally they just about offered enough late on to ensure the pressure on Cooper’s goal was not intolerable.
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