Pedro and Morata send Conte's men through

London, March 19: Pedro came off the bench to grab an extra-time winner and send Chelsea through to the FA Cup semi-finals with a 2-1 win at Leicester City.

The former Barcelona winger capitalised on some poor goalkeeping from Kasper Schmeichel to nod home N'Golo Kante's cross in the 105th minute and end the Foxes' hopes of a place at Wembley.

Earlier, Jamie Vardy's second-half equaliser had cancelled out Alvaro Morata's first goal since Boxing Day to send an entertaining tie beyond the 90 minutes.

Although Chelsea boss Antonio Conte said beforehand the FA Cup was "not important" to him on a personal level, it now represents the best chance of silverware for the soon-to-be dethroned Premier League champions and his strong starting XI reflected that.

Despite that it was Leicester who started the better, Marc Albrighton firing Danny Simpson’s right-wing cross narrowly past the right-hand post.

But Chelsea gradually found a foothold, thanks largely to Kante’s intelligent promptings against his former club while wing-backs Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso were finding plenty of space down the flanks.

Wilfred Ndidi forced Willy Caballero into a fine save down to his right after 20 minutes but the visitors looked the more assured in possession.

Morata had already fired straight at Schmeichel from the edge of the box before he finally ended his goal drought three minutes before the break.

Willian led a swift counter attack before slipping a delightful through ball to the former Juventus man and he showed a cool head to clip past Schmeichel and into the net.

FULL-TIME: LEICESTER CITY 1-2 CHELSEA! (AET)

WE'RE THROUGH TO THE SEMI-FINALS! #LEICHE pic.twitter.com/ruRkdvPnR7

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 18, 2018

Leicester came out strongly after the break and Riyad Mahrez could have levelled within two minutes, his 45-yard attempt following a poor clearance from Caballero drifting wide of goal.

Vardy then skewed a header off-target when completely unmarked eight yards out but he was not to be denied with 15 minutes to go.

Mahrez was the architect with a run and cross down the right flank that caused chaos inside Chelsea's six-yard box. Vardy and Vicente Iborra saw shots blocked before the latter forced another effort on goal. Caballero made a smart save low to his left but the loose ball fell nicely for Vardy to power into the net.

#FACup semi-final draw:

Man Utd v Spurs
Chelsea v Southampton pic.twitter.com/CSOQ8Aqjfa

— Premier League (@premierleague) March 18, 2018

Both sides went for a winner in the final 10 minutes - Morata backheeling against the post from a Cesc Fabregas cross, although the offside flag was up, and Vardy firing low at Caballero before Schmeichel was quickly off his line to deny Morata.

The extra period started slowly and it came as a surprise when Chelsea went back in front. Kante's cross into the box did not look overly threatening but Schmeichel's decision to charge off his line proved foolhardy as Pedro simply nodded over him and into the empty net.

Leicester pushed for a second leveller - Moses producing a sensational block to thwart Fousseni Diabate - while, at the other end, Albrighton denied Kante in similar circumstances.

Chelsea to meet Southampton in semis

Meanwhile in the first quarterfinal of the day, Southampton, reached the FA Cup semi-finals with a 2-0 victory over third tier Wigan Athletic on Sunday as Pierre-Emire Hojbjerg and Cedric Soares were on target in manager Mark Hughes’ first match in charge.

While, Manchester United have been drawn against Tottenham in the FA Cup semi-finals, Chelsea are set to face outsiders Southampton.

The four remaining clubs - all from the Premier League - learned their fate following Chelsea's extra-time win over. That kept alive the Blues' hopes of redeeming last year's final defeat to Arsenal.

However, the majority of attention will be on the clash between 'big six' pair United and Tottenham, with the former aiming to stay in the hunt for what would be a joint-record 13th triumph.

Both matches will be held at Wembley over the weekend of April 21-22, before the final takes place in May.

FA Cup draw in full:

Manchester United v Tottenham

Chelsea v Southampton

(With inputs from OPTA and agencies)