Chelsea fight back to send Untied crashing out Capital One Cup
Manchester United’s bid to grab a fifth League Cup failed dramatically last night as Chelsea gained a measure of revenge for Sunday’s battle in the Barclays Premier League, beating the home side 5-4.
United were gifted the opening goal on 21 minutes when Oriol Romeu was robbed by Anderson who set up Ryan Giggs to fire a low curling left foot strike beyond the reach of keeper Peter Cech.
The Blues were level from the penalty spot eight minutes later when Alexander Buttner tripped Victor Moses and David Luiz smashed the ball into the bottom left-hand corner of the net although keeper Anders Lindegaard managed to get a hand on it.
Javier Hernandez was at his predatory best to fire United back in front two minutes before half-time.
Anderson pounced on a Luiz mistake, the Brazilian spotted Hernandez who raced clear of the home defence before slipping the ball past an advancing Cech.
After the break , Chelsea brought it back level for the second time, however, Nani superbly chipped United back in front just before the hour mark after playing a quick one-two with Anderson – who collected his third assist of the night.
With 93 minutes on the clock, a clumsy Scott Wootton bundled over Ramires in the box and Hazard cooly slotted home Chelsea’s second penalty of the evening to take the tie into extra-time.
Daniel Sturridge fired Chelsea 4-3 ahead, and four minutes from the end of extra time, Hazard set up Ramires who rounded Lindegaard to slip the ball into an empty net and put Chelsea 5-3 ahead.
There was still time for Giggs to score the ninth goal of the evening from the penalty spot, following a foul by Cesar Azpilicueta on Hernandez in the 119th minute, but it came too late to save the visitors as the Blues made it through to the quarter-finals of a competition they used to call the League Cup.
