Rovers are spot on as Chelsea crash out
BLACKBURN (3) vs CHELSEA (3)
CHELSEA’S bid for a clean sweep of trophies came to a halt last night as Blackburn clinched a place in the semi-final of Carling Cup after a dramatic penalty shoot-out.
Veteran full-back Paulo Ferreira equalised for the Blues with the last kick of the game to take the tie all the way, but young gun Gael Kakuta missed the crucial spot kick to hand Rovers a date with Aston Villa in the last four.
Boss Carlo Ancelotti made sweeping changes to the XI which beat Arsenal at the weekend and Blackburn took full advantage when Nikola Kalinic fired them into a ninth minute lead.
Ancelotti, however, made a triple substitution at the break and it paid immediate dividends when in-form Didier Drogba headed home Florent Malouda’s cross with virtually his first touch three minutes into the restart. Indeed, four minutes later, Chelsea were in front when Salomon Kalou raced away to calmy slot the ball past Rovers keeper Paul Robinson.
But the hosts, with boss Sam Allardyce still at home recovering from a heart surgery, weren’t finished yet and pulled back to 2-2 when a hopeful cross from Brett Emerton eluded everyone and slipped past Blues keeper Hilario at his near post.
That forced extra time but Rovers were back in front just three minutes in when Yuri Zhirkov hauled down David Hoilet in the box and Benni McCarthy slotted home from the spot.
That should have been game over but a mistake from Robinson let in Ferreira for a last-gasp leveller, only for the keeper to make amends with penalty saves from Michael Ballack and Kakuta to help his side through.