Chelsea 4-3 Slavia Prague, Europa League: Post-match reaction

Chelsea ran riot from just about kick-off in this Europa League quarterfinal second leg against Slavia Prague at Stamford Bridge, scoring early and often to make it anything but a nervous or tense occasion — well, mostly.

In the second half we decided to far around, again (can we just skip the half-time team talks next time?), and Slavia scored a couple long-range blasts to make things more interesting.

But the game was never really in doubt, even then, it only made things more amusing, hilarious, concerning. Chelsea lead 4-1 at the half, would only only win 4-3 on the night, 5-3 on aggregate.

Pedro, who had been in terrible form, got the party started inside of five minutes, and should have had two by the tenth, but instead of scoring into the empty he hit the post. Fortunately, the ball rebounded straight into the face of a Slavia defender, and then into the back of the net.

Before the first-half was out, Pedro did get his second, but only after Giroud got a third for Chelsea and Souček got one back for the visitors.

Slavia’s goals ensured that the second-half wasn’t just a non-event, which is clearly what Chelsea were expecting.

Chelsea are into the semifinals, where we will face Eintracht Frankfurt, who completed the comeback against Benfica. In the other semifinal, it will be Arsenal against Valencia.

KTBFFH.

PLAYER RATINGS: