From a goal feast against Man City to a drama-filled 90 minutes against Leicester. Stamford Bridge is certainly the place to watch football at the moment.
A Frank Lampard hat-trick plus a strike from Andriy Shevchenko have seen Chelsea through as the Blues did it the hard way, coming back from 1-0 and 3-2 down to win in stoppage time.
Avram Grant was true to his promise to make changes for this cup-tie - just Shevchenko from those who scored the six goals on Saturday starting the game. The Ukrainian was played alongside Claudio Pizarro in a 4-4-2 shape.
Lampard was retained to provide leadership in the middle with maiden goalscorers from the previous round at Hull, Sidwell and Sinclair, also in the starting eleven.
Lampard picked up where he left off against Man City by launching a 50-yard pin-point pass to Wright-Phillips in the third minute, the restored right winger unfortunately failing to control it.
The next action was less to the Chelsea crowd's liking than that pass. A Leicester free-kick was played down the line to Fryatt who found a way round the back of Sidwell to cross. It found the head of Leicester defender and captain McAuley, in a space between Chelsea's centre-backs. With six minutes gone, the visitors went one-up.
Sidwell stabbed over from the edge of the area on 15 minutes following a Shevchenko nod-back as Chelsea looked to get level as quickly as possible. Against the side with the best defensive record in the Championship, it was not looking a straight forward task.
However Chelsea have Frank Lampard in our ranks!
It was after a tackle on the midfield maestro that the ball found its way out to Belletti. The right-back crossed deep to where Sinclair thumped a firm header into the box. Who else but Lampard was there to slide the ball home low in front of the 6,000 Leicester fans in the Shed End.
Sidwell was booked on 23 minutes for a painful lunge at Chambers and then Shevchenko could have made the most of an under-hit back pass three minutes later when he reached the ball just in front of keeper Fulop. His loft towards goal on the turn lacked power.
Lampard may not have made the scoresheet on Saturday but he was in a hurry in this game to add the goals his current form deserves. There were 28 minutes gone when Sinclair, influencing the game well, crossed low.
N'Gotty cleared at the near post with Pizarro challenging but the moment the ball fell to Lampard five yards out, there was only one outcome. Chelsea led 2-1.
Shaun Newton became Leicester's first booking, Alex blasting the 40 yard free-kick that followed against a defender.
Ben-Haim was the next into Phil Dowd's notebook for a trip on Fryatt 10 yards inside the Chelsea half.
A minute before half-time, there was a moment's fright for home supporters when a Fryatt snap-shot slipped from Cudicini's grasp and edged towards goal. However, the offside flag was up - and anyway - the Chelsea keeper pounced on the ball inches from the line.
Into first-half stoppage time and play went quickly up the other end to where Sinclair saw a tight-angle shot off his weaker left-foot saved well by Fulop's outstretched arm.
The second-half began in an unhappy way for Chelsea. Ferreira, attacking down the left flank had his right ankle turned over by a challenge. He was treated first on the pitch, then on the touchline but bandaged and still in pain, he was carried away on a stretcher. Malouda came on to fill the left-back berth in accomplished fashion.
On 56 minutes, Chelsea had the first on-target effort of the second period, Pizarro collecting Lampard's ball and skipping away from N'Gotty, only to fire into the body of the keeper. Within seconds, the Peruvian set-up Sinclair who again was unfortunate to be on the end of good goalkeeping, his attempt this time diverted onto the post.
Chelsea continued to look good for a third. Another fine reflex stop from Fulop kept out Pizarro after a move involving Sheva and Wright-Phillips.
With the third goal proving elusive, the door was still open for the visitors to find a way back into the game. They took up the invitation on 67 minutes.
Wright-Phillips attempted to clear danger down the line but skewed the ball into the middle. Leicester kept the pressure on and when substitute Porter crossed from deep, another sub, DJ Campbell, headed over a stranded Cudicini.
Shevchenko headed a Sinclair cross too high and Sheehan was booked for the Foxes for tugging back Wright-Phillips. The Leicester wing-back's next contribution was to swing a free-kick into the Chelsea box after a Belletti foul.
Former Wimbledon striker Carl Cort, in space at the far-post, slammed a shot home. From 2-1 up, Chelsea had fallen behind in the space of just six minutes.
It was incident after incident. Porter suffered what appeared to be a broken lower leg in an innocuous-looking challenge with Shevchenko and both Kalou and Essien were introduced as Chelsea looked to salvage a worrying situation.
Chelsea were staring our first defeat to lower league opposition in eight years square in the face. Enter Andriy Shevchenko!
Taking Essien's ball forward with back to goal, he wheeled away and from the edge of the area, slammed it high into the net in vintage Sheva style. There had been just five minutes, plus another five minutes stoppage time remaining.
There was more than enough drama to be packed into that! First Lampard's long ranger was saved and as the rebound squirmed towards Essien, the Chelsea man fell under challenge from Sheehan. A penalty? Not according to referee Dowd.
Then came the coup de grace on Leicester's brave resistence. Chelsea broke with men forward. Shevchenko found Kalou but a bad touch wasted an almost certain goal. The ball went wide; Pizzaro's cross skimmed the cross bar and then the chaos really intensified.
Lampard went for goal first, his header was blocked on the line. The ball fell to Shevchenko further out and he fired back towards a packed goalmouth. It may have been heading in anyway but a big deflection off Belletti completed the job.
The Argentine had his first Chelsea goal, at least that is what everyone thought. Then the information came through that the officials had judged Lampard's earlier attempt over the line. He had his second Chelsea hat-trick, the previous one against Macclesfield last January.
His team were in the quarter-finals, his fans were breathless. We discover our next Carling Cup opponents this Saturday lunchtime.
Chelsea (4-4-2): Cudicini; Belletti, Ben-Haim (Essien 79), Alex, Ferreira (Malouda 51); Wright-Phillips, Sidwell, Lampard (c), Sinclair (Kalou 79); Pizarro, Shevchenko.
Scorers Lampard 20, 28, 90+2, Shevchenko 85.
Booked Sidwell, Ben-Haim.
Scorer McAuley 23, Campbell 67, Cort 73
Booked Newton, Sheehan.
Posts
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment