Chelsea ready to lose Jorginho as focus shifts to keeping N'Golo Kante and Mason Mount .
They left it late, but Chelsea beat Brentford 2-0 to secure a spot in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup.
Thomas Tuchel had made it clear from the get-go that he was not going to start his first-team stars tonight. He stuck to his word and three academy graduates in Jude Soonsup-Bell, Xavier Simons, and Harvey Vale were handed their senior debuts, with the latter previously making an appearance on the bench during the EFL Cup and the UCL tie against Malmo in November.
Few thought the Blues could control the game without their main men, but the presence of Cesar Azpilicueta, Trevoh Chalobah, Saul Niguez, and Mateo Kovacic ensured that the men in blue were in possession all the time. However, Brentford did not mind any of that, as they preferred playing on the counter-attack and created the most clear-cut chances in the first half.
Simons and Soonsup-Bell showed a glimmer of potential but could never grow into the game. Vale, however, was energetic, and his deft touches were a part of each attack the West London club orchestrated in the opening 30 minutes. The game was 0-0 at half-time, but Tuchel decided to bring on Jorginho and Christian Pulisic to have a greater hold over the ball.
Sure enough, the Blues began to ponder ahead far more often. Saul pushed up a tad higher and provided protection to Marcos Alonso, who was sometimes the farthest man up the pitch for us. However, the deadlock was not broken until the 80th minute, a couple of minutes after N’Golo Kante was introduced.
A bit of trickery by the Frenchman on the edge of the box was followed up by an overlapping Reece James, who put in a delicious ball into the box and Pontus Jansson, through no fault of his own, thundered the ball into the roof of the net. This gave our side an increased incentive to push up in the final minutes.
Eventually, a counter-attack saw Kante running between the spaces again before threading a ball between Pulisic and the Brentford keeper. The American got there first and won a penalty, with Jorginho calmly slotting it from the spot.
Despite having a ton of players out on the night and playing the youth for a major part of the game, the men in blue secured a comfortable victory against the first team of a well-drilled Brentford side. Let us see how some fans reacted to the victory on Twitter as the Blues sealed a spot in the semi-final of the EFL Cup.
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