Chelsea 2-0 Crystal Palace: Romelu Lukaku's painful FA Cup miss

Romelu Lukaku missed a glorious opportunity to put the icing on the cake of Chelsea’s FA Cup semi-final victory on Sunday afternoon.

The Blues’ record signing had to settle for a place on the bench at the home of football with Kai Havertz, Timo Werner and Mason Mount preferred to lead the line against Crystal Palace.

Thomas Tuchel had said in the run-up to the game that Lukaku needed to take a leaf out of Werner’s book in order to make an impact in what has proven to be a really tough season for him.

According to talkSPORT, Tuchel explained ahead of the game at Wembley: “What Timo has done is exactly what [Lukaku] needs to do.

“Wait, be patient, work hard and put the team first, be ready to help the team, because as a striker you can help within seconds.”

The Chelsea boss then added: “Especially for strikers, things can be turned around in minutes, in moments. Whole careers can be upside down and in any direction but always as a striker you can have a chance to put things into your favour.”

The £97.5-million purchase has only scored five Premier League goals in 2021/22 and came under fire for a controversial interview with Sky Italia over the winter months.

Nevertheless, the scene was set for Lukaku to reboot his goalscoring form when he was brought on for the closing exchanges of the FA Cup semi-final with Chelsea already leading 2-0.

Lukaku had his chance to crown Chelsea’s victory when the ball flashed into his path just yards out from Palace’s goal, seemingly allowing him to join Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Mount’s on the scoresheet.

But alas, it simply wasn’t to be with Lukaku’s subsequent out-stretched strike finding the post as opposed to the net, duly compounding one of the toughest seasons of his career – check it