Chelsea
manager Maurizio Sarri hailed his side's "great personality and character"
which saw them edge out Frankfurt 4-3 on penalties to set up a Europa League
final showdown with Arsenal.
The semi-final second leg ended 1-1 - and 2-2 on aggregate - at Stamford
Bridge on Thursday night, meaning a penalty shootout was needed to separate
the two teams.
However, despite Cesar Azpilicueta seeing his spot-kick saved by Kevin
Trapp, Kepa Arrizabalaga then kept out two Frankfurt penalties to be his
side's hero in the shootout.
"There is no preparation for penalties because you can kick very well in the
training ground, but then the pressure is different," Sarri told BT Sport.
"You need a great personality, a great character. I think it's really
useless to try [to prepare for] penalties."
"Now we need to rest. We have to recover energy because we are really very
tired."
As for the match itself, the home team had made an excellent start after
taking a 28th-minute lead thanks to Ruben Loftus-Cheek's well-taken goal.
However, the visitors responded through Luka Jovic's 49th-minute effort and
then took the game to their opponents, twice forcing dramatic goal-line
clearances in extra time.
"I think we played a very good first half," said Sarri. "Then in the first
part of the second half, we went in trouble. We were passive in the
defensive phase, so we conceded the goal, 10 minutes of panic.
"Better in the last part of the match, then in the extra-time, I think we
were really tired - after 60 matches to play 120 minutes it's really very
difficult and we were unlucky during the match because we lost (Andreas)
Christensen, we lost (Ruben) Loftus-Cheek.
"We started the match with three injuries and two injuries during the match,
it's not easy but in the end, we can play the final."
Man-of-the-match Loftus-Cheek was forced off with just four minutes to go,
although the Chelsea head coach allayed fears the midfielder had suffered an
injury.
"Not a serious problem, but he had the usual cramp after 75 minutes," Sarri
confirmed.
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