League Cup Round of 16: Chelsea struggles to advance, Tottenham suffers shocking defeat

Facing an Everton team in a crisis of form that required the sacking of their manager, Chelsea still had to struggle to get a ticket to the quarter-finals of the English League Cup. The Blues' struggles were not only shown by the fragile 2-1 score.

GOAL:

Chelsea: Ruediger (26'), Willian (90+2')

Everton: Calvert-Lewin (90+4')

Coach Antonio Conte made nine changes to Chelsea's starting lineup in last weekend's Premier League win over Watford. Only Gary Cahill and Antonio Rudiger were retained for the match.

Alvaro Morata, Cesc Fabregas and Pedro were all on the bench. Eden Hazard was given a full rest as he was not included in the squad. Notably, Danny Drinkwater, a £35 million signing from Leicester this summer, made his Chelsea debut after a long injury layoff.

Chelsea's second team and Everton, who have just sacked coach Ronald Koeman, did not create many scoring opportunities after the opening whistle at Stamford Bridge this morning.

In the rather monotonous first 45 minutes, the home team made a difference thanks to dead balls. From a corner kick on the left wing in the 26th minute, center back Ruediger headed the ball very dangerously. The ball went beyond the reach of goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and into the Everton net.

1-0 in favor of Chelsea was also the score of the first half. In the beginning of the second half, Everton continuously pressed forward to find an equalizer and Chelsea's defense showed signs of weakness.

Unfortunately, Wayne Rooney failed to beat goalkeeper Willy Caballero in his close-range shot. Immediately after, Caballero fumbled the ball straight to Aaron Lennon, but the visitors were unable to take advantage of this "gift".

In the following minutes, Chelsea's defense continued to show holes. Fortunately for The Blues, Caballero made up for his mistakes with consecutive saves. Most notably, Caballero parried a powerful right-footed shot from Kevin Mirallas in a comfortable position in the 69th minute.

Things could have been less difficult for the Stamford Bridge team if Michy Batshuayi had doubled the gap in the 77th minute. The Belgian striker tricked goalkeeper Pickford but let Phil Jagielka clear the ball right in front of an empty goal.

It seemed that 1-0 would be the final score. Unexpectedly, in the 90+2 minute, Willian shot diagonally from Fabregas's assist to increase the score to 2-0. At this point, Chelsea fans could breathe a sigh of relief. In the last minute of extra time, substitute striker Calvert-Lewin unexpectedly scored an honorary goal for Everton, and the fate of the match was decided.

A narrow 2-1 victory was enough to secure a ticket to the next round for The Blues. Chelsea followed in the footsteps of giants like Man United, Man City and Arsenal to book their place in the quarter-finals of the English League Cup this season.

In the other match, a big surprise happened when Tottenham was defeated by West Ham with a score of 3-2. It is worth mentioning that The Spurs took a 2-0 lead after the end of the first half thanks to goals from Moussa Sisoko and Dele Alli, but in the second half, they conceded 3 goals in a row and were turned around by West Ham.

LINEUP

Chelsea: Caballero, Ruediger, Cahill, Christensen, Zappacosta, Ampadu, Drinkwater (Fabregas, 62'), Kenedy, Willian, Batshuayi (Morata, 85'), Musonda (Pedro, 70').

Everton: Pickford, Kenny, Williams, Jagielka, Baines, Davies, Baningime, McCarthy (Calvert-Lewin, 64'), Mirallas, Rooney (Niasse, 82), Lennon (Lookman, 73').

Specific results

Chelsea 2-1 Everton

Tottenham 2-3 West Ham

According to Bongdaplus