Two high flyers in their respective leagues came head-to-head in the quarter-finals of the Capital One Cup on Tuesday night, with Chelsea overcoming Derby County by three goals to one.
Eden Hazard opened the scoring with a finely taken strike before an outstanding Filipe Luis costless-kick doubled the advantage. A clinical finish from Craig Bryson in the second 45 brought the home side back into the game.
Hopes were all but diminished, however, when stand in centre-back Jake Buxton was shown a soft red card for a challenge on substitute Loic Remy. Andre Schurrle made sure of a victory when the World Cup winner netted from six-yards out.
Jose Mourinho showed the competition and his opponents the utmost respect, fielding a near full strength starting XI and a bench that would strike fear in the Derby players.
It was the Blues who, as expected, dominated the early possession and managed to win a corner just three minutes into proceedings. Veteran striker Didier Drogba, who has won this tournament twice before, headed the ball against the the returning Jake Buxton. The subsequent set piece was poor from Cesc Fabregas and Derby had a chance to break. Any chance of a counter attack was extinguished immediately after Andre Schurrle brought down Johnny Russell and was rightly shown the first card of the game.
Richard Keogh was without regular centre-back partner Ryan Shotton following the Stoke loanee’s suspension in the defeat to Middlesbrough on Saturday. The 28-year-old looked uncomfortable with the pressure the Chelsea forwards were exerting on his back line and it took it’s toll just past the 20 minute mark.
Attention from Drogba forced Keogh to play the ball against Eden Hazard, the recovering tackle then unfortunately found it’s way to Fabregas in midfield. The impressive Spaniard grabbed his 11th assist of the season as he played the ball towards his Belgian teammate, the winger took his iconic step inside and showed immense composure as he slotted the ball low past Lee Grant.
The Premier League leaders showed no signs of sitting back on their lead with Filipe Luis, who stated he wanted to win the Capital One Cup for Drogba, testing the goalkeeper moments later. Steve McClaren’s side had won four of their last five games but found it difficult to retain possession of the ball, with John Obi Mikel and Nemanja Matic styfling anything the Rams attempted in the middle of the park.
Therefore, many of the home side’s attacking threat came from the flanks. An attempted Will Hughes cross, during the Derbyshire outfit’s best spell of the first-half, was blocked by Captain John Terry and went out for Derby’s second corner of the night. The resulting Johnny Russell cross was punched away from Petr Cech, but the Czech Republic international caught youngster Kurt Zouma in the process. The 20-year-old won the French equivalent of the League Cup with Saint-Etienne last year but could take no further part in this fixture, being replaced by Branislav Ivanovic just before the interval.
Promising prospect Hughes looked troublesome once again after a much improved start to the second-half. Johnny Russell has been involved in four cup goals this term and almost notched up another assist when he skipped past Luis before pulling it back to Hughes. The teenager, who is being courted by a host of first division clubs, got his shot on target but it was ultimately saved by Cech.
Disappointingly for the Englishman, the midfielder gave away the costless-kick which lead to the second goal of the game. A trip on Drogba 25-yards out from goal was severely punished by Luis, who curled in a quite brilliant first goal for the West Londoners. The wall remained strong, Grant dived to his left but nothing could stop an accurate set piece from the Brazilian full-back.
A poor challenge from Real Madrid's Omar Mascarell left Didier Drogba in a heap, with the Ivorian being replaced by the pacy Loic Remy up front. However, it was substitute Jordan Ibe who sparked Derby’s first goal of the match. The former Liverpool man took on Cesar Azpilicueta, who was making his 100th appearance for Chelsea, to drill a cross in towards Hughes. The ball was poorly cleared by Ivanovic towards Mascarell, who headed the ball down to Craig Bryson. The Scotland midfielder played a one-two with Russell and with a first time finish, placed the ball inside of the far post with aplomb.
McClaren’s squad are now the leading scorers in this season’s competition with 11 goals, and with Ibe continuing to give the defenders trouble, it was easy to see why. The Derby heart was beating strongly following their goal until Buxton was sent off by referee Jonathan Moss with 12 minutes left to go.
The crowd were in dismay after the sending off was rightly deemed as soft, with just a few tugs on Remy’s shirt the only notable illegal move. The Frenchman could have gone down, but nobly stayed on his feet. The referee sighted the pulling as preventing a goal scoring opportunity.
Before the County management team could make a change, the visitors regained their two goal cushion. Remy, who certainly made an impact after coming on, collected a pass from Fabregas to strike upon goal. Grant could only parry the ball back into the danger zone and Schurrle pounced to tap in from close range.
Two contrasting changes were made from two contrasting managers. Mourinho, animated on the touchline, decided to take goalscorer Hazard off in place for Ramires. While ex-England manager McClaren, in the stands throughout, brought on Blackburn forward Leon Best for Omar Mascarell.
Failed attempts at goal from County concluded this quarter-final clash, with Chelsea comfortably brushing aside the opposition. The Pensioners will face either Sheffield United, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Spurs or Newcastle in the two legged semi-final. Derby, meanwhile, return to league action against Norwich this weekend.