Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United: FA Cup quarter-final as it happened
United could be without a recognised striker in their squad tonight.
- N'Golo Kante strike after 51 minutes puts Chelsea into FA Cup semi-finals.
- Ander Herrera was sent off for two bookable offences inside the first half.
- Marcus Rashford led Manchester United's attack this evening despite reports claiming he was set to miss out due to illness.
- 19-year-old "put himself up" for selection, says manager Jose Mourinho.
- Semi-final draw to follow after tonight's match.
Smalling inexplicably gives the ball away in the Chelsea box and the Blues mount forward on the counter. It's Costa vs Jones while the Spaniard waits for reinforcements and it comes in the form of Fabregas. He lashed a shot from the edge of the box on goal but De Gea makes a good save with Rojo doing brilliantly to block up a follow up effort.
Hazard has United's defence backpeddling in a panic again until Pogba wins the ball from him with a beauty of a sliding challenge. United quickly get the ball upfield with Rashford bringing it out of the air beautifully, but his ball into the middle one is a disappointing one and Courtois easily collects.
Ander Herrera is shown the first yellow card of the game. Hazard moves over to the right and cuts inside, playing a one two with Costa on the edge of the box. As the Belgian goes to reach the return, Herrera steps across and stops his firmly in his tracks.
Hazard is tormenting United at the moment; they cannot get near him.
Kick-off is minutes away; here is one last look at those starting XIs.
Chelsea team to face Manchester United: Courtois; Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Cahill (c); Moses, Kante, Matic, Alonso; Willian, Diego Costa, Hazard
Subs: Begovic, Terry, Zouma, Chalobah, Fabregas, Pedro, Batshuayi
Manchester United team to face Chelsea: De Gea, Jones, Smalling, Rojo, Darmian, Herrera, Pogba, Young, Mkhitaryan, Rashford
Subs: Romero, Bailly, Blind, Carrick, Fellaini, Lingard, Mata
Marcus Rashford is going through his final warm-ups at Stamford Bridge. He's made the decision to play himself tonight after his recent illness.
Paul Pogba of course starts. The Frenchman has turned in two pretty underwhelming performances against Rostov and Bournemouth, he will have to step up tonight.
Jose Mourinho has been talking to BBC Sport ahead of kick-off and he says the decision for Marcus Rashford to start comes from the player himself.
"The decision has come from him. He understands the situation, he is the only one forward with a chance to play. He put himself on the line and he plays. Let's see how he goes."
Chelsea's team tonight is what he have come to expect from them; incredibly strong-looking. Antonio Conte has opted to rest Thibaut Courtois, David Luiz and Marcos Alonso in previous rounds of this competition this season but all three start tonight.
Cesc Fabregas misses out with the familiar midfield partnership of N'Golo Kante and Nemanja Matic positioned in midfield with Willian preferred to Pedro in an attacking three that also features Eden Hazard and Diego Costa.
Right, now that the dust has settled, let's have a proper look at those teams then.
It looks like Jose Mourinho had decided to play three centre-halves and two wing-backs tonight, similar to Chelsea's own system. He makes four changes in all with David de Gea, Antonio Valencia, Matteo Darmian and Marcus Rashford in for Sergio Romero, Marouane Fellaini, Daley Blind and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. That team selected would suggest a back three of Jones/Smalling/Rojo flanked by Valencia and Darmian either side.
Marcus Rashford starting is the biggest surprise of the evening but a close second must be Fellaini's absence. The Belgium international starts on the bench with Rashford supported by Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Ashley Young, with Ander Herrera and Paul Pogba tasked with doing battle with N'Golo Kante and Nemanja Matic in the middle of the park.
With all his centre forwards injured ahead of a Europa League clash last February, Louis van Gaal famously called upon a little-known youngster from the youth ranks named Marcus Rashford to lead his attack. The rest his history.
One thing is for certain, Jose Mourinho won't pull a similar stunt this evening. United's Under-23 side are in action against their Southampton counterparts tonight and their only real second string forward in Scott McTominay is present and accounted for.
Team news: Manchester United
So if Martial, Rashford and Rooney have all joined Zlatan Ibrahimovic in not being available tonight, what can Jose Mourinho do? His side will already be feeling the effects of a gruelling run of four games in 10 days so this won't help matters.
As we see it, there are two options, the likely one being Marouane Fellaini deployed up front with the hope that his presence can trouble Chelsea in the same way Dele Alli and Tottenham did at the turn of the year.
The downside to that is the chronic lack of mobility that could leave United with in the final third. Jesse Lingard could combat that.
Here's our breakdown of all the options Mourinho could be mulling over.
Team news: Manchester United
United are yet to confirm the potentially horrifying news that they have arrived in London today without a single fit recognised striker among their ranks. But if you ignore the potential disaster up front, Jose Mourinho has most of his squad available. Eric Bailly is fit again having served his one-match ban in Europe with all of his players coming through unscathed after Thursday night's match on that treacherous pitch at Rostov.
Antonio Conte on what team he will pick tonight
"The FA Cup is a great competition and for this reason I want to try to make the best decision for the game against United. We didn't play in the week, our last game was Monday, and then we play again on Saturday. I don't see the necessity to rest players, because United will do the same against us."
Team news: Chelsea
Unlike tonight's opponents, Chelsea, the strongest side in the league, do not have a single notable absentee or injury concern to worry about. Antonio Conte has a full squad to choose from and, in more good news for United, insists he will not be tempted to rest players.
Thibaut Courtois, David Luiz and Marcos Alonso are yet to play a single minute in the competition this season having been rested against Peterborough, Brentford and Wolves but are all expected to feature tonight.
What's worse than travelling to the home of the league leaders without your first choice striker? Why travelling to the home of the league leaders without any strikers at all, of course.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic's three-match ban means Manchester United are already understrength for tonight's FA Cup quarter-final clash against Chelsea, who don't have a single injury concern to their name.
Wide-ranging reports now suggest however Wayne Rooney, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford are now also expected to miss out due to injury and illness. It would be nothing short of an unprecedented disaster for Jose Mourinho, who has already been humbled once on his former stomping ground this season after a 4-0 thrashing last October.
How on earth can United combat such a setback? Sticking a big lad up front and hoping for the best maybe their only course of action, with Marouane Fellaini ticking all the "big lad" boxes.
Or maybe... just maybe, Jose is having us on. Prompt Chelsea to make plans for the sizeable presence of Fellaini only to have the quicksilver Marcus Rashford miraculously recover to lead the line? Stranger things have happened.
Stick around, we'll have all your team news and build-up here leading up to kick-off at 7:45pm.
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