FA Cup: Kepa, Alonso shine as Chelsea survive Plymouth Argyle scare

Marcos Alonso netted an extra-time winner and Kepa saved an even later penalty as Chelsea fought back from conceding early on to advance to the FA Cup fifth round at the expense of a resilient Plymouth Argyle side on Saturday at Stamford Bridge.

Marcos Alonso netted an extra-time winner and Kepa Arrizabalaga saved an even later penalty as Chelsea fought back from conceding early on to advance to the FA Cup fifth round at the expense of a resilient Plymouth Argyle side on Saturday at Stamford Bridge.

The visitors of League One took home side all the way having gone ahead as early as the eighth minute through Macauley Gillesphey's header. Chelsea hit the woodwork three times before Cesar Azpilicueta impressively drew them level as half-time approached, the skipper's delicate flick a fine way to open his account for the season.

Blues laid siege to Plymouth's goal for large swathes of the second half, racking up 35 shots by full-time, but they could not find a way past Mike Cooper and his disciplined defence.

The Blues, led by Arno Michels and Zsolt Low today with Thomas Tuchel self-isolating after testing positive for COVID-19, did muster a breakthrough at the end of the first half of extra-time. Sub Alonso was on the end of a slick move to make it two Spanish full-back scorers.

Another Spaniard, Kepa, then reproduced his penalty-saving heroics to stop the tie going to a shoot-out. He guessed correctly to hold on to Ryan Hardie's spot-kick with just a couple of minutes of the extra 30 remaining.

Chelsea will now fly to Abu Dhabi as their attention turns to another cup competition, the Club World Cup.

( With inputs from ANI )