X reacts as Chelsea overcome penalty nonsense to beat Leicester in FA Cup

The magic of the FA Cup is a somewhat overused trope, but this weekend's action has delivered nothing short of nostalgic brilliance.

It started with Coventry City's upset at Wolves on Saturday and while Manchester City's victory over Newcastle was more expected, the third quarter-final between Chelsea and Leicester provided so much drama that it's almost impossible to know where to start.

That said, we'll give it a go. With the help of X - formerly known as Twitter - here's how social media reacted to Chelsea's 4-2 win over Leicester.

It all started so swimmingly for Chelsea against Leicester, who beat the Blues in the 2021 FA Cup final and are plotting promotion back to the Premier League after suffering relegation last season.

An unlikely goalscorer got proceedings underway in the 13th minute as Marc Cucurella arrived at the back post to tap in Nicolas Jackson's pass across the box.

The Blues had the chance to take a stronger hold on the game when Raheem Sterling was felled in the box by Abdul Fatawu. Though regular penalty-taker Cole Palmer was on the pitch, Sterling pulled rank in an attempt to score just his second goal in 14 games.

However, the former Man City forward made a hash of his spot-kick, dribbling a shot down the middle as Jakub Stolarczyk easily read it and made the save.

Sterling was then sent clean through on goal but this time sent his shot comfortably wide of the target as his afternoon went from bad to worse.

Sterling did at least make amends soon after, crossing low for Palmer to easily convert. That didn't stop the fickle folk of social media from letting their feelings known, however.

In most other seasons, Chelsea would generally be favoured to hold onto a 2-0 lead with few issues, but Axel Disasi produced a freakish own goal that curled past goalkeeper Robert Sanchez to reduce the deficit to just one goal.

Absolute nightmare fuel.

Who doesn't love a brilliant joke?

That goal proved pivotal in Leicester's comeback as they found another around ten minutes later to level the scores.

Stephy Mavididi took advantage of some dithering defending, working his way into the box before curling a beautiful effort past Sanchez into the far corner.

Had the visitors not had Callum Doyle sent off with around 20 minutes to go, the Foxes may well have gone on to nab a win. As things panned out, however, the 20-year-old left-back took down Jackson as the last defender and was sent off upon VAR review.

With a player advantage, Chelsea worked over their opponents but home manager Mauricio Pochettino drew more than just the ire of Blues supporters with his decision to substitute Mykhailo Mudryk for Carney Chukwuemeka instead of replacing Sterling.

Sterling didn't help himself a few moments later, ballooning a free-kick well over the bar.

Thankfully for Pochettino, Chukwuemeka made a telling contribution by putting Chelsea back ahead in the 91st minute, benefitting from a glorious back-heel from Palmer to clip in the hosts' third.

A semi-final place was wrapped up a few minutes later as Madueke saw a deflected effort loop into the top corner.

While it ended up being another day filled with Chelsea nonsense almost from start to finish, the west London giants ultimately booked another trip to Wembley and could face the likes of Manchester City, Coventry, Liverpool or Manchester United in the last four.

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