Chelsea reach Carabao Cup semi-finals after beating Newcastle on penalties
Kieran Trippier suffered a nightmare as the Toon defender gave away a late equaliser and then missed a penalty to send Chelsea through to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup.
A Blues fan entered the pitch after the Chelsea goal to barge into Toon keeper Martin Dubravka in frantic finish.
With the penalties taken at the other end, the England defender screwed his kick wide before Chelsea keeper Djorde Petrovic saved Matt Ritchie’s spot-kick.
All four Blues players found the net from 12 yards, including £52million summer signing Christopher Nkunku after he made his injury-delayed debut.
Chelsea, down in 10th place in the Premier League after a difficult start, celebrated wildly the dramatic late win and a return to Wembley since the 2022 FA Cup final. And Mauricio Pochettino has the chance to emulate Jose Mourinho, who won this trophy in his first season in 2004-05.
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Sub Mykhailo Mudryk had levelled in second-half injury time after a terrible mistake by Trippier, much to the dismay of Toon boss Eddie Howe (right).The England full-back made two errors against Everton and last night his attempt to cushion head sub Malo Gusto’s header back to Martin Dubravka was intercepted by the Ukrainian.
Callum Wilson had profited from pantomime-style defending as he left three Blues behind him to score the first-half opener. The last time Newcastle won at Stamford Bridge was under Alan Pardew back in May 2012 when Papiss Cisse netted a ridiculous shot past Petr Cech.
Wilson’s goal after 16 minutes was memorable in a totally different way.
A noisy opening saw Anthony Gordon’s shot deflected over by Axel Disasi and Conor Gallagher hit the bar at the other end. But the Blues backline was at serious fault for the opening goal.
Chelsea are in to the last four of the Carabao Cup (Chelsea FC via Getty Images)Chelsea’s full-back crisis meant four centre-backs were deployed in defence and three of them – plus British football’s most expensive player – were all culpable. Levi Colwill presented Wilson with the ball on halfway but Chelsea still had the cover of Moises Caicedo, Thiago Silva and Benoit Badiashile.
Somehow the England striker was able to bundle his way through and blundering Frenchman Badiashile got his feet in a tangle and passed the ball straight back to Wilson, who gratefully netted his eighth goal of the season.
Raheem Sterling tried to spark the home team into life. He exchanged passes with Caicedo before slipping a shot wide before his shot was blocked on the line by Bruno Guimaraes.
Enzo Fernandez went off after minutes to be replaced by Armando Broja. And the Albanian gave the Chelsea attack some focus with Nicolas Jackson shifted out to the left.
Broja was just offside before converting a Cole Palmer pass but volleyed weakly into Dubravka’s hands after a fine ball from Thiago Silva.
There was no VAR to review an early tackle by Caicedo or by Colwill on Emil Krafth in first-half injury time and neither man appeared after the break.
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Sven Botman, making his first start since September in one of three changes to the Newcastle team, was also subbed off with Trippier and Dan Burn coming on.
Tripper endured a nightmare at Stamford Bridge (Getty Images)Jackson hooked a shot wide after the break and Sterling forced Dubravka into a fine save before the England forward was booked for diving.
Captain Gallagher was denied a 90th-minute penalty after a challenge by Tino Livramento before Mudryk’s late, late equaliser.
The bad feeling increased when Guimaraes was booked for barging into Maatsen.
Stand-in keeper Petrovic, who saved five of 14 penalties he faced in the MLS, was the Chelsea hero in the penalty shoot-out.
He said: “It was a tough night but we deserved to win.
Mudryk said: “That goal means a lot to me.”
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