Chelsea bottle semi first leg as Middlesbrough rekindle memories of glory days
Hayden Hackney rekindled memories of Boro's glory days 20 years ago as he fired Michael Carrick's side 90 minutes from Wembley.
Mauricio Pochettino's men bottled the first leg of this Carabao Cup semi-final as the England U21 midfielder gave the Teessiders a narrow lead. The Chelsea boss is now under huge pressure to conjure a revival against the Championship side who were snappy, intense and tactically well-organised.
Pictures of Boro's only cup triumph, in the league cup two decades ago next month, adorn the training ground and are seen by their players every day at work. On this evidence, they could get another crack at a cup final. They pulled off a stunning win.
The omens were not great for Boro given the recent history of these fixtures. Chelsea has won the last nine meetings without conceding. But it took a route one move from Boro to smash that statistic and put Chelsea's cup hopes in peril.
Jonny Howson pinged a quick ball forward over the top, to the right wing which wingback Isaiah Jones ran onto. He turned England defender Levi Colwill inside out, cutting inside to drill a cross to the near post. There was only one Chelsea defender in the six-yard box defending and local lad Hayden Hackney nipped in unmarked to side-foot home.
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Moises Caicedo, the £115m midfielder tracked Hackney into the box and then left Hackney. The local lad made his first team breakthrough last season after a loan spell at Scunthorpe and had expected to play the season at Hartlepool until his talent was allowed to thrive. He now has five England U21 caps.
It was Boro's first goal against Chelsea in ten games since Mark Viduka's winner in 2006. The Riverside atmosphere was electric, bringing back memories of their winning cup run exactly 20 years ago when Steve McClaren's men beat Bolton in the Carling Cup final.
Surely they can't go all the way again? To go one up in this tie, they had already come through adversity. Carrick was missing 11 players to injury, suspension or international cup call-ups before losing two more in the first 20 minutes.
Mauricio Pochettino's Chelsea came out second-best against Middlesbrough (AFP via Getty Images)Pochettino's side started as comfortable favourites but a mistake from Levi Coalwill in the opening seconds allowed Emmanuel Latte Lath to run in behind and shoot weakly.
Axel Disasi crunched the striker's foot with a late challenge causing him to limp off injured after five minutes. No penalty was given, and there was no VAR to intervene.
Josh Coburn came on, and in the 17th minute wing-back Alex Bangura tweaked a hamstring and was subbed. It was nightmare luck for Boro but they weren’t disrupted and grew into the battle.
Cole Palmer missed four great chances, including an open goal, in a sloppy first half. In injury time he should have side-footed home after Tom Glover slipped a catch, but scooped over.
Earlier Teesside skipper Howson passed straight to Palmer 30 yards out, but the England man dragged his left foot shot just wide from the edge of the box, and he had two efforts saved at full stretch by Glover.
Boro came close to shutting out Aston Villa in the cup with some clever tactics, squeezing space, and the same tactics worked here other than Palmer's openings.
Pochettino made three changes after the 4-0 FA Cup win over Preston with Thiago Silva, Conor Gallagher and Noni Madueke back in, but his side lacked cohesion. Raheem Sterling looked a shadow of his former self and Tiago Silva was outpaced by target man sub Coburn.
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All £100m worth of Enzo Fernandez was subbed an hour after being outshone by Hackney and Dan Barlaser. Armando Broja went closest in the second half.
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