Chelsea defeated Cardiff City 3:1 and qualified for the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup tournament, sportal.bg reported.
Thus, Londoners have a real chance to fight for the trophy in the third most important competition on the Island for the first time since 2015, when they won it under the leadership of Jose Mourinho, the Special One.
The guests took the lead shortly after the break with a goal from the reserve Alejandro Garnacho (58'), but a quarter of an hour before the end of regular time the hosts equalized through David Turnbull (75'). Just seven minutes later, however, Pedro Neto (82') restored the lead for the world club champions, and in added time, Garnacho (90';+3') scored another goal to decide everything.
This was only the third opponent that Chelsea eliminated in the Carabao Cup this season. The Londoners reached today's match by eliminating third-division Lincoln (2:1) and elite Wolverhampton (4:3). Cardiff City, on the other hand, had a much longer journey and due to their third-division status, the Welsh team was forced to start their participation in the competition from the first round. The teams of Swindon (2:1), Cheltenham (3:0), elite Burnley (2:1) and Wrexham (2:1) were successively eliminated.
With today's defeat, Cardiff remained without a win against Chelsea for over 60 years. The Welsh team's last success against the Londoners dates back to 1961, when the two teams competed in the second tier of football on the island. At that time, the Welsh players recorded two successes with 5:2 and 3:2, but later both Chelsea and Cardiff were relegated to the third division.
Compared to the championship victory over Everton with 2:0 at the weekend, Enzo Maresca decided to come out with a completely different starting lineup. He made a change including under the goalposts and decided to start today with Philip Jorgensen instead of Robert Sanchez. Even the two goal scorers Malo Gusto and Cole Palmer were not included in the starting 11. Palmer was rested and was not in the group that traveled to Wales at all, while Gusto was assigned to the bench. All the other players from the victory over the "caramels" also had a chance to appear later, the only difference being Mark Cucurreia, who was also not in the group at all. Both scorers in today's clash Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garnacho appeared as substitutes after the break.
Cardiff, for their part, achieved a 4-3 success in League One against Doncaster just over 72 hours ago, with manager Brian Barry-Murphy also making some changes. Ronan Kpaccio and William Fish from the defenders were rested at the first whistle at the expense of Dylan Lawler and Perry Ng, who was a substitute at the weekend and appeared in the second half. In midfield, Alex Robertson was replaced by David Turnbull, with exactly the same change made against Doncaster during the match. At the top of the attack, Youssef Saleh, who scored the goal for 3:3, was sent to the bench today and Callum Robinson led the attack instead.
Surprisingly or not, it was the hosts who took the first accurate shot in the match. However, it was only for statistics, as Callum Robinson headed a cross, and the ball flew up and Philip Jorgensen caught it only to avoid unnecessary headaches, although he also had the option to let the ball go out of bounds.
In the 11th minute, the Londoners created their first more dangerous situation. A quick play from a corner kick on the ground reached the uncovered Gittens in the penalty area, who shot powerfully over the goal.
In the 13th minute, the first truly valuable situation for the hosts came. Turnbull broke into the penalty area and shot sharply diagonally, and Jorgensen, after some effort, caught it.
A quarter of an hour after the start, Tyreek broke quickly down the flank and sent the ball strongly into the penalty area on the side, and the Welsh defenders should have been glad that there was no one in a white shirt and blue shorts to knock the leather ball into the goal, guarded by Nathan Trott.
In the 16th minute, the chief referee Tony Harrington showed the first yellow card of the match. It was for Isaac Davies, who made an unsportsmanlike entry from behind. Overall, this was another moment of rudeness between the two teams, who were not afraid to throw themselves hard, not only for the first ball.
In the middle of the half, Tyreek George was again at the epicenter of events. The 19-year-old Briton broke into the Welsh penalty area but was too busy and shot too late, and a Cardiff defender stood in his way, who cleared it.
In the counterattack, the home team created another situation in which they lacked precision in the final shot. Isaac Davies broke free of the Londoners guarding him and fired from distance, but his shot was so mediocre that Philip Jorgensen simply watched the ball go out of bounds.
Half an hour into the game, the capital team finally did something of value. Gieu fought off Lawler's protection and launched a tricky diagonal shot that Nathan Trott saved, but not convincingly enough. Lawler was still well positioned and prevented a penalty, knocking the ball back to Trott, who caught it.
In the 34th minute, Isaac Davies made the Londoners tremble and with a shot made Jorgensen stretch as much as possible on the ground and clear it for a corner.
Shortly before the break, the guests were stunned again. A mistake in the English team's own half allowed Turnbull to steal and shoot into a corridor from the edge of the penalty area.
At the break, Maresca made only changes, surprisingly putting one of his most active players, Tyreek George, on the bench and replacing him with Alejandro Garnacho. Joao Pedro came on for Marc Gieu.
At first glance, the substitutions didn't work, and Chelsea even retreated deep into their own half, while Cardiff mounted a territorial pressure.
Ten minutes later, however, the changes began to pay off, and Garnacho forced Nathan Trott to intervene for the first time in the new half.
Three minutes later, the long-awaited moment came for the guests, who caught their opponent unprepared for a counterattack, and Garnacho became a golden reserve, finishing the attack with a priceless goal.
An hour after the start, the Londoners could have killed the intrigue, but Buonanotte showed no character in the final phase of the attack, with Trott this time demonstrating brilliant reflexes and denying the player of the world club champions.
Shortly after that, Maresca made two more changes in the hope of closing the match with a second goal. Malo Gusto and Pedro Neto came on for Jamie Gittens and Facundo Buonanote.
In the 73rd minute, the Londoners could have taken a 2-0 lead, but at the last moment, Andrej Santos failed to make a save, and the defender in blue and white could have scored a comical own goal while trying to clear. The miss proved fatal, as just 120 seconds later, Perry Ng found a way to position himself correctly on the flank and sent a deadly cross to David Turnbull, who was uncovered in the penalty area, who intercepted with his head and sent the ball high into the goal post, where even Jorgensen, who had stretched to the limit, was unable to save.
Three minutes after the goal, the hosts could have made a valuable sacrifice, as goalkeeper Nathan Trott received emergency medical treatment after preventing a danger in front of his goal created by Pedro Neto. In the end, the injury turned out to be harmless and the goalkeeper continued. However, he did not intervene convincingly enough in the next situation in front of his goal, in which Santos found Pedro Neto, who this time did not make a mistake and returned the lead to the Londoners.
The Welsh tried to respond quickly and immediately after the resumption of play, David Turnbull could have made the 30 thousand at the "Cardiff Stadium" erupt again, but he volleyed just over the crossbar.
In the 87th minute, João Pedro could have decided everything, but at the last moment a defender knocked his shot off the goal line.
In the 3rd minute of added time, Pedro made another mistake and shot high over the crossbar.
Just a few seconds later, the third goal came, which decided everything. Joao Pedro capitalized on his efforts with an assist, finding Garnacho, who slotted into the bottom right corner and put an end to the dispute.
In the remaining minutes, the match was simply being played out, with the hosts maintaining their dignity and showing once again that they did not come out simply to keep the score and try to lose by the smallest possible margin. So in the 95th minute, Turnbull crossed treacherously and chaos ensued, but no one was found to intercept the ball, and Jorgensen caught the leather ball to end the last interesting situation in the match.
Chelsea became the first team to reach the final four of the tournament this year, with the participant in the grand final being determined this time in a dispute over not one, but two matches at the beginning of next 2026. Two of the other three 1/4-final matches will be played tomorrow, December 17 (Wednesday), with Manchester City hosting Brentford and Newcastle hosting Fulham. The final match of this phase is the capital derby between Arsenal and Crystal Palace on 23 December (Tuesday), after which a special draw will be made and the semi-final pairings will be determined.
CARABAO CUP, QUARTERFINALS
Cardiff City: 13. Nathan Trott, 38. Perry Ng, 48. Dylan Lawler, 12. Callum Chambers, 3. Joel Began, 6. Ryan Wintle, 14. David Turnbull, 27. Joel Colwill, 39. Isaac Davies, 45. Chian Rashford, 47. Isaac Davies
Manager: Brian Barry-Murphy
Chelsea: 12. Philip Jorgensen, Josh Acheampong, 4. Tosin Adarabioyo, 5. Tosin Adarabioyo, 21. Yorel Hatto, 25. Moises Caicedo, 17. Andre Santos, 32. Tyreke George, 40. Facundo Buonanote, 11. Jamie Gittens, 38. Marc Gieu
Manager: Enzo Maresca