Ross Barkley books Blues place in FA Cup semi-finals

SKY SPORTS: Ross Barkley’s second-half goal was enough to send Chelsea into the FA Cup semi-finals, beating Leicester 1-0 at the King Power Stadium.

The result will come as a relief for Frank Lampard after a sloppy first half in which Leicester took advantage of Chelsea’s errors but could not find the back of the net, although Christian Pulisic had the best chance of the opening period but was thwarted by an acrobatic Kasper Schmeichel save.

The Chelsea head coach made three half-time changes and they paid off, with the visitors looking sharper in the second half and one of those substitutes, Barkley, slotted home in the 63rd minute to send the Blues into the Wembley semi-finals on July 18 and 19.

The semi-final draw will take place at half-time during Newcastle vs Manchester City later on Sunday (kick-off 6.30 pm), with Manchester United and Arsenal already in the pot.

Leicester began strongly and could have gone ahead inside three minutes.

Within 30 seconds, Harvey Barnes had stolen possession before driving towards the area, but he was unable to make the most of a neat interchange with Jamie Vardy.

Wilfred Ndidi took advantage of some more poor Chelsea midfield play, nipping in before laying the ball off to Barnes on the left. However, his cross – intended for Vardy – was pushed away by the outstretched hand of Willy Caballero.

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Leicester went close again inside a few minutes as Ndidi again stole the ball back in midfield – this time from N’Golo Kante – to spark a counter-attack, but Dennis Praet’s cross evaded Perez, Barnes and Vardy inside the area.

Caballero was in action again shortly after to deny Youri Tielemans with a low stop.