10-man Chelsea hold nerve to win Fulham shoot-out

Ten-man Chelsea rode their luck to reach the fourth round of the League Cup with a 4-3 penalty shoot-out win over Fulham after a 0-0 draw following extra time at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.
Andre Villas-Boas’s side looked in trouble when Brazilian defender Alex was sent off two minutes into the second half for conceding a penalty with a professional foul.
But Pajtim Kasami hit the crossbar with the spot-kick and Chelsea managed to hold on to force a shoot-out.
Frank Lampard missed the Blues’ first penalty but Moussa Dembele squandered his kick and Bryan Ruiz did the same, with replays inconclusive as to whether the ball crossed the line, as Chelsea scraped through.
“Everybody was looking at each other wondering if it was celebration time. The linesman was there so maybe, this time, the decision is good,” Villas-Boas said in reference to his belief Chelsea were harshly treated by the officials in their defeat at Manchester United on Sunday.
Fulham boss Martin Jol added: “To be fair, I haven’t seen it.
“Somebody was standing in front of me and then I saw him (Ruiz) go towards the goalkeeper and I knew that he’d missed.”
Chelsea’s win improved their miserable record of seven penalty shoot-out defeats from their previous eight attempts.
Salomon Kalou had fired narrowly off-target early on after Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku saw his shot saved from a lightning breakaway.
With half-time looming, Josh McEachran brilliantly burst into the box in what was his first appearance of the season and beat Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, with Daniel Sturridge poking home only to be flagged offside.
Injury was added to insult as Sturridge was forced from the field and, before Lampard could come on to replace him, Petr Cech was hurt colliding with Orlando Sa and failed to re-emerge for the second half.
Ross Turnbull came on and it got worse for Chelsea in an extraordinary opening two minutes after the restart.
Kalou fired into the side-netting after being released by Lampard and moments later Fulham won the penalty that saw Alex dismissed.
Ruiz’s clever back-heel freed debutant Kerim Frei, who was brought down by Alex.
Referee Chris Foy deemed the Brazilian the last man and produced a red card, but Kasami failed to capitalise, smashing the penalty against the crossbar.

Source:  Vanguard Newspaper