Chelsea missed an important match in the first leg. It has to perform extremely hard in the second leg to gain an advantage. Hayden Hackney’s goal in the 37th minute was the only score in the Chelsea and Middlesbrough match at Riverside Stadium on Tuesday.
Chelsea missed numerous opportunities. Cole Palmer and Thiago Silva both had excellent opportunities but blew them in several different places.
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Highlights from the Match
Boro started strongly, and Latte Lath took advantage of a poor Levi Colwill header to get in behind Chelsea’s defenders.
The referee waved away penalty demands of Levi Colwill when he was touched on the ankle by Axel Disasi. To add to the confusion there was no video assistant referee system in place at this round of the game.
Palmer made his first major error when the ball was sent to him by the seasoned skipper Jonny Howson thirty yards from the Boro goal. He moved towards the goal and attempted to place it in the corner, but it went wide.
Boro took the lead minutes later when Jones slipped in behind The Blue Lion’s defence and twisted and turned Colwill, who struggled throughout, before Hackney turned in his cross, which had drifted off Moises Caicedo.
The score elicited raucous applause inside the Riverside, but the game quickly returned to the customary pattern of Chelsea raids, with Palmer turning over the crossbar after Enzo Fernandez’s shot was saved by Tom Glover.
Former Manchester City forward Palmer then saw another chance stopped as he cut in from the right, while Caicedo’s long-range effort went wide.
Chelsea dominated much of the second half as well but were unable to create any clear-cut opportunities, Middlesbrough’s Hackney was the only goal by the end of the second half.
Cole Palmer, the star player for Chelsea this season, fell short in the semi-finals
Former Manchester City Forward, Cole who had scored 8 goals for Chelsea this season missed on 3 different opportunities.
Placing trust in Cole Palmer is reminiscent of the patronage that helped Harry Kane become a modern great. Palmer’s consistency made it surprising that he shot wide after Jonny Howson’s first-half error and Tom Glover’s goalkeeping error before halftime. Palmer’s reluctance to hide thereafter bore some similarities to Kane’s tenacity, but keep in mind that he is a rookie to the first squad.
Chelsea beat Newcastle in the quarter-finals to gain a spot in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup but failed to move into the finals. The second leg will take place on Tuesday, January 23, at 1:15 am Thursday, Indian Standard Time (IST)
