Chelsea vs. Liverpool, FA Youth Cup: Open Thread

The Chelsea boys are just 90 minutes away from their second consecutive and fourth FA Youth Cup final in the last six years. Mighty impressive.

All they have to do is not throw away a fantastic two-goal lead from the first leg, both goals coming late from speedster and quickly improving Alex Kiwomya. One month shy of his 17th birthday, Kiwomya is shining bright in the academy. He has scored in four straight FA Youth Cup matches - i.e. every single one that he's appeared in - his six goals accounting for almost half of the 13 total scored so far by Chelsea. He has added four more in nine U18 league starts to lead all academy players with 10 goals (in just 13 appearances). As Adi Viveash said, "he's gone from strength to strength," and that might have been an understatement. Kiwomya also scored three times in Chelsea's NextGen campaign and even has six appearances the U21 level.

Despite the hole they find themselves in, Liverpool will surely not go without a fight and Chelsea's defense, anchored this time by Nathan Ake, and midfield, led by the ever more dominant Ruben Loftus-Cheek will have to look alive.

Norwich City, vanquishers of Nottingham Forest on penalties, await the winner in next month's final.

Date/Time: Friday, April 19, 19:45 BST; 2:45 P.M. EDT; 12:15 A.M. IST (next day)

Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6

TV/Online: ITV 4 (UK); ChelseaTV

Chelsea U18 starting lineup (4-3-3):
Mitchell Beeney | Kevin Wright, Nathan Ake, Alex Davey, Ola Aina | Lewis Baker, John Swift, Ruben Loftus-Cheek | Jeremie Boga, Islam Feruz, Alex Kiwomya

Substitutes from: Ben Killip, Fankaty Dabo, Dion Conroy, Charlie Colkett, Connor Hunte