PS: One more for the vowel heads, from Julian Borrill: “Unfortunately Johannes Vennegoor of Hesselink only played one league cup game during his time at Hull, and none of that Everton team had particularly vowel-limited names. However, in the second half Marouane Fellaini came on for the Toffees, giving the game a 2-player vowel-sum of 20. ... or 25 if you allow the full name, Marouane Fellaini-Bakkioui.”
Gdby. Thks fr rdng. Gn.
That concludes the blog. Ben Fisher’s report will update to include quotes from Enzo Maresca and the boy BBM. Thanks for reading.
Alejandro Garnacho also spoke to Sky: “They brought me on and I tried to help the team. Me, Pedro and the rest of the players did that. We are really happy. As a group we are doing really well. Sometimes you have to start games and sometimes you have to help from the bench. We don’t focus on this, we just try to help the team.”
Pedro Neto spoke to Sky Sports: ““It was the concentration. It was the will of winning this game. We wanted to win a lot this game. Then we had guys on the pitch who could make the difference and Garna [Alejandro Garnacho] today helped us a lot as well with two goals. We are Chelsea, we want to win trophies. Our mindset is to win all the games.”
Here’s Ben Fisher’s report from the Cardiff City Stadium.
David Brady remembers all our yesterdays: “Isn’t it lovely to just watch a ding-dong cup match without the interference of VAR? It’s just flown by, played in good spirits, competitive and reminder of what football can be. At times.”
Full-time: Cardiff 1-3 Chelsea
Chelsea into the semi-final draw, but that ends EFL involvement in the EFL Cup. It took Chelsea’s big guns to win it, with Joao Pedro leading the line, and from that surfeit of wingers it was goals from Garnacho and Pedro Neto who won the tie. Cardiff will always have that David Turnbull goal and BBM can at least recall a decent display from his team. Chelsea into the semis for the third time in five seasons.
90+4 min: The assist from Joao Pedro who has supplied a decent exhibition of centre-forward play. Marc Guiu may take note.
Goal! Cardiff 1-3 Chelsea (Garnacho, 90+3)
A double for the sub, a nice finish on the counter, and of the sort he seemed incapable at Manchester United. That’s that for Cardiff.
90+2 min: Long ball goes all the way to Joao Pedro who has a sight of goal but lamps the ball into the stand.
90+1 min: Gasps as Ashford goes down, as Santos makes a challenge, but the referee had a full view of the crime scene and closed down investigations with a wave.
90 min: Six minutes are added on in Cardiff.
89 min: Enzo Maresca can be heard, and he’s not too happy. The Chelsea fans are rather more cheery.
87 min: Gary J Byrne: “Amid this amusing wordplay, can I just establish that the Chelsea away kit resembles a vowel movement.”
Matt Dony: “Cardiff bands, eh? Well, SFA might not be to everyone’s taste, but the first Los Campesinos! album is an absolute thing of joy. I’m not sure they’ve ever topped it. Well worth checking out. Tangentially, Welsh-language music in general is currently in a good moment, to borrow a phrase. Lots of really great artists embracing the language, doing interesting things. Nawr, dewch ymlaen, Caerdydd!”
I had an album of Welsh psychedelia put together by Andy Votel and Gruff Rhys that was pretty good. No idea where it is now.
86 min: Hato, who has been kept busy in defence, attempts to overlap from full-back. Gusto. Joao Pedro joins the throng and there’s a handball claim, but as there’s no VAR that’s all it shall remain.
84 min: What can Cardiff find? Ooof, Turnbull slashes at the ball and it bounces up and down, and off the bar freakishly.
Goal! Cardiff 1-2 Chelsea (Neto, 82)
Just as Cardiff eyed penalties at the end of the 90, Neto is laid up to shoot, and his shot comes off Bagan’s trailing leg and in.
Updated
80 min: Trott is actually hurt, so there’s a delay in play. That brings on some more subs. Off goes Colwill, and on comes Alex Robertson, who immediately gets involved.
78 min: Wintle makes a similar error to Lawlor’s before and Pedro Neto forces a save from Trott, who is so brave in lunging low to save that.
77 min: Real character from BBM’s boys. Lawlor, after his error, has been excellent. He looks classy.
76 min: An assist with no vowels from Ng, and it was a beautiful cross.
Updated
Goal! Cardiff 1-1 Chelsea (Turnbull, 75)
But! What! What a goal, what a header from Turnbull as Cardiff suddenly spring forward, a diving header Denis Law would be happy with.
Updated
73 min: A spell of Chelsea pressure as they look to get another, Cardiff looking tired after all their efforts. The changes for Chelsea have injected a quality their opponents have struggled to live with.
Updated
71 min: The other sub, Willock, has looked decent but runs into a blind alley. At the other end, Bagan, who has had a fine game goes close to soiling that by almost deflecting the ball past his own keeper. Trott can only watch it slide by.
69 min: Salech looks a handful and drifts a cross over that Tosin struggles to deal with. Do Cardiff fans sing “Men of Salech” to him? Wrong bit of Wales, perhaps.
67 min: Rob Newsum gets in touch: “The chat about names made me wonder if Chelsea were due to play Napoli. Yes, they are, in the Champions League next month. I hope they pick Facundo for that one and the hosts select defender Alessandro, so we can see Buongiorno facing Buonanotte.”
Tim Smith, too: “As the game grinds on and a goal is required, Chelsea may have a gargantuan squad, but Cardiff have a certain Mr. William (Billy the) Fish on their bench. Please make it happen, just for the headlines alone.”
Smoke tabs, drink beer, as the advertising hoardings used to say.
Richard Hirst: “And, of course, my team, Fulham, had the gloriously monickered Abdeslam Ouaddou. Same number of vowels, but the only one who, one hopes, was known as ‘seaside’ by his colleagues.”
66 min: More Chelsea changes: Buonanotte, who did OK, and Gittens, who did rather less well, go off for Pedro Neto and Malo Gusto.
64 min: Chris Willock, brother of Joe, forces a corner, and from it has a shot blocked. Bagan teases a beauty of a ball into the area. Jorgensen climbs and palms away. He goes down as if injured. The home crowd is not convinced.
63 min: Trott to the rescue again, running out to make a fine tackle on Garnacho. The Bermudan has been excellent.
61 min: Kari Tulinius gets in touch: “Like you, I never fully clicked with the Super Furry Animals, so for me Cardiff’s finest contribution to music remains the Young Marble Giants. They’re one of those bands that sound like they could’ve recorded their music at any time in the last fifty years, yet resemble no one but themselves.”
My colleague and friend Philippe Auclair plays music with one of the Giants. This is a big deal for me.
60 min: The goal came from playing out from the back; BBM was formerly a Manchester City coach, so we know where the idea probably came from.
59 min: Chelsea look to kill this off. Buonanotte fires over, Trott making a fingertip save as the ball comes loose from a blocked Joao Pedro shot.
58 min: Cardiff had just slackened off, and that was clear in BBM’s changes. The tiring Isaak Davies was replaced by Chris Willock, too.
Goal! Cardiff 0-1 Chelsea (Garnacho, 57)
The momentum had come, and a huge error from Cardiff’s Lawlor sets up Buonanotte to supply an assist to Garnacho.
Updated
56 min: Callum Robinson’s lone vigil is over as he’s subbed off. Yousef Salech is on, the top scorer.
55 min: Big chances, big pressure from Chelsea, after an error from Chambers, and the ball breaks to Garnacho, and then there’s a desperate block of a Joao Pedro shot. Trott cleared up after Chambers’ error.
52 min: Joao Pedro sets up Buonanotte for a run, but his pass is awry and that gives Cardiff’s players chance to get back.
50 min: The lively Davies sets up Wintle, who the fans want to shoot. Should he score the headline is clearly going to be “A Wintle’s Tale”. The Bard is still relevant in 2025. The shot, by the way, is blocked.
49 min: Chambers and Bagan link down the left, where Acheampong has clearly been targeted in the BBM pre-match plan.
48 min: Tosin’s pass is a shocker and Ng collects to set up an attack. Cardiff resume their hustle and Chelsea continue to struggle in possession. Enzo, on the bench, is not at all impressed.
46 min: Garnacho is booed on first touch: what has he done to Cardiff? Too many vowels?
Two half-time subs for Chelsea
Tyrique George and Marc Guiu off, Joao Pedro and Alejandro Garnacho on. No Cardiff subs.
Updated
Justin Kavanagh is in: “For all the exotic names on their team sheet, Chelsea are a bit static and constipated in attack: perhaps they need to work on their vowel movements.”
Richard Hirst gets in touch: “Still riffing on vowels, but changing the emphasis a little, has anyone had a higher vowel percentage than Ola Aina?”
Half-time: Cardiff 0-0 Chelsea
Just one minute added on of a half where Cardiff have been the better team and Chelsea have been short of fluency and threat. Surely big guns will arrive in the second half. It’s all to play for.
45 min: Ooof, the ball comes loose, and Turnbull, from an unrealistic distance, shoots. Jorgensen scrambles to the floor as it goes wide. There’s cheers soon after as Caicedo gets booked. Silly from the skipper: he was booked for sarcastic clapping of the referee. The free-kick spins just wide of a queue of Cardiff players.
Rob Wall get in touch, conjuring unnecessary images: “First of all, thanks to Brian Kitt for the vowel-related lol. I doubt it is the league cup’s biggest ever vowel mismatch though, given that two of Buonanotte’s teammates in this very game have the same number of first-name-surname-combined vowels as him (Adarabioyo and Badaishile). Blimey that was hard to type on a phone in the bath.”
43 min: Julian Borrill gets in touch: “Just on his own team in this match, Facundo Buonanotte will need to split the vowel-difference honors with Tosin Adarabioyo and Benoit Badiashile. And ... and de Jesus Joao Pedro on the bench.”
41 min: Peter Oh gets in touch: “Please tell me VAR is reviewing Brian Kitt’s contribution for serious vowel play!”
No VAR here tonight? This is where we forget the tyranny of the system. Sunday at Brentford was farcical. All decisions correct, just a lot of messing around. Is that a price worth paying?
40 min: Ng makes a timely intervention to stop Gittens getting away. Cardiff have been note perfect in defence, now can they put together some attacking moves?
38 min: My colleague Ben Fisher tells me “BBM’ is fully operational as an initialism among Cardiff fans. “BBM’s Bluebird Army” as the song goes.
37 min: Great play from Bagan in robbing Acheampong, only for Caicedo to lope after him and quell the danger.
36 min: Do Cardiff smell blood? This 11-changes Chelsea lineup is unconvincing. Tyrique George has a dig from distance but way over.
Updated
34 min: The closest yet! Davies escapes Acheampong, whose tackle is non-existent and a deflected shot asks Jorgensen to change direction to save the ball.
33 min: Great work from Davies, who escapes with the ball from defence and it takes three Chelsea players to overman him. Really good effort from Cardiff. Robinson is a tad lonesome but the midfield is being swarmed all over.
31 min: Caicedo – at last – gets involved, and after finding space he releases Guiu, whose shot is fierce and on target but Nathan Trott stops that at the near post.
29 min: Santos, who has been another player struggling with Cardiff’s brio, falls flat as Turnbull runs almost right through him.
27 min: Chelsea yet to see the best of Buonanotte. So are Brighton, in truth, though he did OK at Leicester last season. He fouls Ashford but gets away with a yellow. The home fans are not happy, neither is BBM.
26 min: Chambers is booked for his challenge on Guiu; it was what in old money is called the reducer. It’s awarded despite an offside being called.
24 min: Gary Byrne gets in touch: “Chelsea’s away kit is officially described as a uniform honouring the Magnificent Magyars, inspired by the Hungarian flag. It looks a bit sh** (green) to me.”
Brian Kitt – any relation to Eartha? – supplies a beauty: “Facundo Buonanotte has 7 more vowels in his name than Perry Ng. Surely the largest vowel mismatch in League Cup history?”
23 min: Davies with a big chance as Bagan plays him in. With defenders breathing down his neck he scuffs his effort – it ends up going off the sideline.
21 min: Matt Dony gets in touch: “Right. Housekeeping. Super Furry Animals are unequivocally brilliant, and even better live (although watching Gruff Rhys play guitar is always confusing. He uses a normal right-handed guitar as a left-hander, so it’s upside down). On topic, Cardiff will really have to go some to top Swansea’s League Cup defeat of Chelsea, with the tremendously entertaining Ball Boy/Eden Hazard stuff. Glad to be reminded of it.”
I once saw them get soaked to the skin at Finsbury Park. It wasn’t good. The sun came out for New Order who were great.
Updated
20 min: Bagan makes a heroic block to bail out his fellow defenders who had been trying to pass out of defence.
18 min: Turnbull chases down Tyrique George. Discussion point: now that the Premier League is long ball, has the EFL become the new home of Pep-ball, all pressing and controlled passing?
17 min: This no trip down Easy Street for the Chelsea team. BBM, as nobody is calling him, has put a decent team together here.
15 min: Acheampong showing what he can do by bringing the ball out; and is fouled by Davies. Who gets yellow. Davies was previously hacked by Acheampong, who has a turn of foot and showed a clean pair of heels.
Updated
14 min: Chance! Chelsea’s George skips to the byline, and his ball is a full invitation. Guiu and Gittens refuse to take it up. Enzo looks unhappy at that.
12 min: Jorgensen asked to save a shot. Foul on Davies by Acheampong and a shot comes in from David Turnbull. Chelsea yet to get into this.
11 min: The corner is taken short, and laid up for Badiashile to shoot wide. Perhaps not the right player to be on the end of that routine.
10 min: Chelsea attempt to take the sting out of Cardiff but the press is high. They play over the press and Guiu is the target. He’s crowded out. Gittens attempts a dribble and the ball runs for a corner.
8 min: Good Cardiff momentum as a cross from Bagan is beaten away. Chelsea have been sub-optimal. Caicedo’s already thrown in a foul but not done much else.
7 min: First chance to Cardiff, as Hato is overmanned by Joel Colwill, and the cross comes in for Callum Robinson, for whom the ball is too high. The header drifts over.
6 min: Calum Chambers, once the future of English football, is in the thick of things, and making a new life for himself in Wales. He’s 31 next month.
4 min: Cardiff play the ball back to goalkeeper Trott. He has to sidestep Guiu, in the style of a pre-Donnarumma Guardiola goalie. All very Russ Martin. This time, he gets away with it.
3 min: Another ball to Gittens, and Ng is hurt, and is feeling his shoulder after a heavy ball. More jeers as Tyrique George fails to find a way through the middle.
2 min: Tosin aims a long ball towards Gittens, but to jeers, the ball runs out of play.
Away we go in Cardiff
1 min: The League One leaders set into Chelsea but the world champs choose to play keep ball.
Big noise at the Cardiff City Stadium, which is an atmospheric place when it gets going. Hey Jude rings out and Macca pockets a few more quid. It really works as a buildup song.
Enzo Maresca spoke to Sky: “It’s important to win the game, I’ve prepared the right team that is going to attack and can defend. We’ve tried to find the right balance, it’s not easy, but hopefully it’s the right thing to do.”
As we continue the countdown to ecstasy, Peter Oh gets in touch: “ It doesn’t get any bluer than this fixture, does it? The good thing is that no matter what happens tonight, it’s sure to be a blue Christmas for both sets of fans.”
Joe Pearson gets in touch: “In honor of the hosts, I’ve got Spotify picking Super Furry Animals cuts for me. That will certainly confuse my Wrapped next year.”
Never got them, though I do like the one that samples Steely Dan’s Show Biz Kids.
Julian Menz gets in touch: “If I were a Cardiff fan enjoying a pint of Brain’s and seeing the names Tosin and Badiashile as Chelsea’s CB pairing, I’d be having a crafty tenner (6-1) on the Bluebirds.”
Brains is a good drop.
Guess that’s why they call it the Blues.
There’s trouble at t’Chelsea mill, as Jacob Steinberg has been reporting.
Another Irishman, Callum Robinson, leads the Cardiff line, as top scorer Yousef Salech is on the bench. Omari Kellyman is ineligible as he is on loan from Chelsea among five changes by BBM as he is doubtless known by nobody.
Great Ben Fisher interview with Brian Barry-Murphy, the Cardiff manager. Ben’s interviews are always good. Irish readers will know Barry-Murphy is the son of the great GAA player and Corkman, Jimmy Barry-Murphy,
That’s 11 (eleven) changes from Enzo Maresca’s team from the defeat of Everton. Moises Caicedo leads the team as captain.
The teams - a youthful Chelsea
Cardiff: Trott, Ng, Lawlor, Chambers, Bagan, Wintle, Turnbull, Joel Colwill, Isaak Davies, Ashford, Robinson. Subs: Turner, Giles, Fish, Mafico, Robertson, Donczew, Nyakuhwa, Willock, Salech.
Chelsea: Jorgensen, Acheampong, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Hato, Caicedo, Santos, George, Buonanotte, Bynoe-Gittens, Guiu. Subs: Sanchez, Chalobah, Fofana, Gusto, James, Fernandez, Garnacho, Pedro Neto, Joao Pedro.
Referee: Tony Harrington (Cleveland)
Preamble
The cup of dreams fizzes over with Big Blues and their visit to the Bluebirds. Chelsea are an unsteady ship, judging by some of the noises coming from their manager, though explanations for Enzo Maresca’s Saturday huff comes there none. Cardiff are blazing a trail in League One, spirits revived by a squad of homespun talent. Chelsea have a mix of homespun and bought in, mostly the latter. They also have a gargantuan squad, with an infinite number of wingers. What awaits us in the Principality? The answer is a semi-final place.
Kick-off at 8pm. Join me.
