Chelsea will make their second Wembley trip of 2024 later today when the Blues face FA Cup holders Manchester City in the semi-finals.
Late goals from Carney Chukwuemeka and Noni Madueke saw Chelsea secure a 4-2 win over Leicester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals, setting up the clash with Man City. The semi-final will be the Blues' second visit to Wembley of the season so far, with the last trip ending in a tough 1-0 defeat against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final.
Chelsea enter the clash in great form, with the Blues unbeaten in their last eight across all competitions — the last defeat being in the Carabao Cup final at the end of February. If Mauricio Pochettino's side are victorious against City, they will face Coventry City or Manchester United in the final.
Both games in the Premier League between Chelsea and City have ended in draws this season, so how will the FA Cup semi-final clash play out? Let's take a look.
We simulated Man City vs Chelsea to get a score predictionTo complete this simulation, we used EA FC 24 and updated the squads with the latest injuries and suspensions.
We predict that City could line up in a 4-3-3 formation, with their starting XI as follows: Ederson; Lewis, Stones, Dias, Ake; Rodri, Kovacic, Bernardo; Doku, Alvarez, Grealish.
We predict that Chelsea could set up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with their line-up as follows: Petrovic; Gusto, Chalobah, Silva, Cucurella; Caicedo, Gallagher; Madueke, Palmer, Mudryk; Jackson.
Chelsea struggled to get going at Wembley, with City seeing most of the ball in the first half but failing to create any clear-cut chances. Julian Alvarez had a glorious chance to make it 1-0 in the 51st minute when he was slipped through on goal by Jeremy Doku, but his driven shot across goal whistled just wide of the post.
A big chance fell the way of Cole Palmer in the 81st minute when he intercepted a poor back pass from Ruben Dias to go one-on-one with Ederson, but the Englishman's attempted chip had too much power as it looped over the bar and onto the roof of the net. After 90 minutes, the two sides couldn't be separated, and 11 minutes into extra time, City should've made it 1-0.
A nice passing move that started by Kevin De Bruyne ended with the Belgian being played through on goal, with his run untracked by the Chelsea defenders. One-on-one, the Belgian was the favourite, but a fantastic save by Djordje Petrovic saw his effort palmed wide of the goal, and the game somehow remained 1-0.
At the end of 120 minutes, City had managed 23 shots to Chelsea's five, but Pep Guardiola's side failed to find a way past Petrovic as the game went to penalties. Both sides scored their first two spot kicks, but identical to City's shootout against Real Madrid, Bernardo Silva missed as his attempted Panenka was caught by the 'keeper.
Again, the midfielder's miss proved costly as all five of the penalties after were scored, meaning Cesare Casadei's final penalty was the decider as Chelsea won 5-4 on penalties to reach the FA Cup final.
EA FC 24 predicted final score: Man City 0-0 Chelsea (Chelsea win 5-4 on penalties)What do you think the final score will be? Let us know in the comments!
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