Swansea 0 Chelsea 0: Swansea City in Cup final will be ‘great day for football’, says rival boss Parkinson

The South Wales club last night dumped Chelsea out of the Cup, drawing 0-0 on the night to complete a 2-0 aggregrate victory over two legs.

They will now face the Bantams in the final on February 24, and the Bradford manager is excited at the prospect.

“We will play with confidence and belief in the final,” he said.

“We will give ourselves a chance. I’m so pleased it’s Swansea, it will be a great day for football.”

Last night’s game was unremarkable, but the biggest talking point came when Chelsea star Hazard was shown a straight red card.

With just over 10 minutes remaining, and Chelsea needing to score twice to take the tie to extra-time, the Belgian lost patience when a ball boy refused to hand over the ball after it had gone out of play for a goal-kick.

The ball boy fell to the ground as Hazard attempted to get the ball from him with the Blues forward then trying to kick it from under him but instead he appeared to make contact with the youngster.

Several Chelsea players went to tend to the ball boy, who was left holding his ribs, before referee Chris Foy produced a red card.

City boss Parkinson said: “Swansea did well, they really wanted to get through. It was a crazy red card, that ball boy is going to be all over the papers tomorrow, it’s comical really.”

And on the Bantams’ celebrations after their victory over Aston Villa over two legs, he added: “The party went on quite a while last night, we made the most of it and rightly so. I had to pinch myself this morning, we can’t quite believe what has happened. The whole city is buzzing today.”

Victory for Swansea saw them reach the first major cup final in their 100-year history.

Demba Ba, who started in place of Fernando Torres, and Oscar failed to convert Chelsea’s best chances, as Swansea showed the same resilience that characterised their first-leg win at Stamford Bridge to book a Wembley appointment with Bradford.

Benitez had opted for Ba up front with his side needing goals, and Torres not having found the net since December 23.

The Chelsea manager had predicted Swansea would look to sit back and protect their two-goal advantage from the first leg, but the hosts instead took Michael Laudrup’s advice to be bold during a sharp opening.

They first had to survive a penalty scare after Ba went down under a challenge from Ben Davies.

Foy opted not to point to the spot although there was contact as Ba looked to step inside the full-back.

While Chelsea complained Swansea broke sharply and it took a superb block from Cesar Azpilicueta to keep out Wayne Routledge’s goalbound volley.

Michu, fresh from signing a new four-year contract, was the next to test the Chelsea rearguard from Routledge’s reverse pass, but found Petr Cech equal to his angled drive. But Chelsea began to assert an authority on proceedings having weathered that flurry, and Swansea dropped deeper as the half wore on.

Gerhard Tremmel made a sharp stop to deny a fizzing effort from Hazard as the game entered the final 20 minutes, and Chelsea’s hopes were effectively ended when Hazard was then dismissed in unsavoury fashion.

Pablo Hernandez and Nathan Dyer missed chances to secure victory on the night as Cech saved on both occasions, with the stadium still stunned by Hazard’s astonishing dismissal.

“At times tonight it was like a bar fight especially when they were pushing on,” said defender Ashley Williams.

“The team defended brilliantly. That’s what we worked on. We wanted to bring them back here and score a goal and keep a clean sheet. We didn’t score but we kept a clean sheet.”