Chelsea booked their spot in the Carabao Cup final as they eased past Tottenham 3-0 on aggregate.

Leading 2-0 from the first leg of their semi-final, Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger headed the only goal of the game early in the first half at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to seal their passage to Wembley.

They will face Arsenal or Liverpool in the final, with their delayed second leg getting under way on Thursday night, live on Sky Sports Football.

For Tottenham, it is one more opportunity gone this season to end their 14-year trophy drought since they won this competition in 2008. They are likely now left with just the FA Cup.

It was the perfect start for Chelsea. It took a little longer than it did to open the scoring in the first leg, but after 18 minutes they were in front on the night as Rudiger arrived at the right time to head home Mason Mount’s corner.

Spurs were left with an uphill battle, and they briefly thought they might have a way back into the game as Antonio Rudiger brought down Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg on 40 minutes and referee Andre Marriner pointed to the spot. But a VAR check correctly concluded the foul took place outside the box, and the home side made nothing of the resulting free-kick.

Just before the hour mark, VAR came to Marriner’s rescue again, as he pointed to the spot for another Spurs penalty, thinking that Kepa Arrizabalaga had felled Lucas Moura, but it was clear that the Chelsea goalkeeper had cleanly taken the ball.

After 64 minutes, Spurs finally thought they had found a way back into the tie as Moura fed Kane and he found the back of the net, but the England captain was correctly adjudged by VAR to be offside.

Antonio Conte introduced Ryan Sessegnon and then Bryan Gil, but it wasn’t to be for Spurs. The long wait goes on.