Chelsea advanced to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup after beating Newcastle United 4-2 on penalties on Tuesday evening.
Carabao Cup
Result: Chelsea 1-1 Newcastle United (Chelsea won 4-3 on penalties)
Date: 19 December 2023
Venue: Stamford Bridge
The Blues made only one change following their win over Sheffield United in the league, as Enzo Fernandez was recalled in place of Mykhailo Mudryk while summer signing Christopher Nkunku featured on the bench for the second consecutive time after recovering from injury.
Mauricio Pochettino's charges almost had a flying start within the first eight minutes after Conor Gallagher had a curling shot that rattled the crossbar.
Newcastle eventually went ahead on 16 minutes from a counter-attack after Callum Wilson went through on goal and slotted a low shot past goalkeeper Dorde Petrovic.
The game opened up as Chelsea sent numbers forward but Pochettino was forced into a change just after the hour-mark, as Fernandez could not continue due to injury and was replaced by Armando Broja.
Broja made an immediate impact as he found the back of the net for Chelsea eight minutes before the break but the goal was chalked off for offside.
The hosts were spirited coming from the interval and Raheem Sterling came close to levelling matters shortly before the hour-mark with a diagonal low drive that bravely saved by Martin Dubravka.
The Blues took time to get going again and with 20 minutes remaining, they eventually brought on Nkunku for his debut in place of Nicolas Jackson for fresh legs up top.
Chelsea started to pressurize the Magpies in the closing stages, as they camped inside their own half and Valentino Livramento almost scored an own goal two minutes before time after his clearing header wrong-footed Dubravka but fortunately missed the gaping goals wide.
The Blues' pressure finally paid off in the last minute as they equalised after Mudryk pounced on a mistake by Kieran Trippier in the box and fired a low strike into the bottom corner.
The game went straight into penalties, where Chelsea held their nerve to win the the shoot-out 4-2 after Petrovic saved Matt Ritchie's last spot-kick, following a miss by Trippier.
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