Eden Hazard seemingly bid a heroic farewell to Stamford Bridge, as his decisive penalty secured Chelsea’s place in the Europa League final, and handed Maurizio Sarri another opportunity to end his barren spell with a trophy.
A tense first-leg made for an interesting night ahead with Frankfurt supporters flooding into London to see if their side could follow in the footsteps of Liverpool and Tottenham by knocking out the favourites Chelsea in their own backyard.
Such premonitions, however, looked to be misguided as Ruben Loftus-Cheek continued his rich vein of form to give Chelsea the lead midway through the first half, placing his shot into the far corner of the net with confidence.
Kicking into the cauldron of raw unadulterated Germanic noise and energy Frankfurt appeared from the dressing room buoyed by their underdog status and led valiantly by the untamed Serbian youngster Luka Jovic, who pulled away from his marker to drag his side from the jaws of defeat and set up a grandstand finish.
Such a finish did not materialise over the course of 120 minutes, and thus penalties were to be the deciding factor in a tie so tightly balanced that the consequences of Hazard’s winning spot kick seemed harsh on a team so ruthlessly enigmatic and courageous over the course of their first campaign in Europe for five years.
Here’s how we rated the Chelsea players:
