Advantage Swansea after surprise defeat of Chelsea in Capital One cup
Poor performance by Chelsea and horrific decision making by Ivanovic has gifted the Welsh side a confidence-boosting 2-0 lead in the semi-final.
Rafael Benitez has decided to leave Lampard and new signing Demba Ba on the bench for this match and played Torres up front. However the Spaniard has had a disappointing night as he lacked his creativity and final touch. Luiz, who put on a star performance for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge had created number of chances for Torres, including the best chance of the game when he fed a perfectly measured cross-field pass to Torres, only for him to direct the ball straight at the keeper.
Chelsea’s failure to capitalise on their chances soon punished the home side as Swansea took the lead on the brink of half time. It was an unfortunate goal for Chelsea to concede as it all resulted from Ivanovic making a mess on his own penalty box and mis-controlling the ball to allow Michu, who’s been quiet most of the game to finish with the outside of his foot from 18-yards. Blues fans inside the stadium booed the players as they made their way to changing rooms.
Second half was the exact replica of the first, with Chelsea being the only team threatening and creating chances however with 20 minutes gone Benitez brought on Lampard for Ramires to ignite some energy for men in blue. Frustrated Torres was also substituted off; the decision was received by cheers and applause from Chelsea fans as poor final touches by the 28-year old, wasted some of the best opportunities.
Swansea boss Michael Laudrup took off the goal scorer Michu and brought on Graham with just 7 minutes left to play. Chelsea seemed to be running out of ideas as the visitors’ line up had answers to anything Chelsea threw at them.
With three minutes added on Chelsea thought they had a penalty when Demba Ba went down in the penalty area after a clash with Tremmel. Chelsea appeals were penalised and Ba was booked for diving.
Just as Chelsea were ready to settle with a one goal deficit, Swansea doubled their lead with 92 minutes on the clock. Blind back-pass by Ivanovic had wrapped up the nighmare evening for the Serbian international. Graham pounced on poor effort of clearance by Chelsea centre-back and went around Turnbull to make sure that his side go home with a comfortable 2-0 advantage.
With just seconds remaining before the final whistle Ba thought he got one back for the hosts, as he got on the end of Lampard’s feed but the Senegalese striker was ruled offside.
Benitez left the pitch with boos echoing from the stands as his side could crash out of yet another cup competition if they can’t turn around a 2-0 deficit two weeks time.
Umida Ibrahimova, sports correspondent
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
RSS