Full time: Leicester 2-4 Chelsea (aet)
ET30: After 90 very entertaining minutes that ended with the sides all square but with Leicester down to 10 men, a quickfire double from Cesc Fabregas in the opening four minutes of extra time won this Cup tie for Chelsea. They go through to the fourth round at the expense of Leicester, who went two goals up courtesy of a Shinji Okazaki brace. Gary Cahill and Cesar Azpilicueta scored either side of the half-time interval to put Chelsea back in the game and Fabregas popped up in extra time to remind Antonio Conte just how good he is.
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ET28: Leonardo Ulloa goes down injured, gets treatment and wanders over to the sideline to wait for permission to come back on again. Truth be told, he looks like he’d prefer referee Bobby Madley to order him to stay put.
ET27: With the closing stages of the game being played at a dawdle, Matic picks out Moses with a ball to the corner from deep. He crosses for Chalobah, who is offside.
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ET26: Fabregas snatches at a Marcos Alonso cross from the left that was intended for Diego Costa. His rushed effort scorches high and wide, prompting Farbegas to wave a hand of apology in Costa’s direction.
ET24: Andy King hacks a Cesc Fabregas pull-back into the penalty area out for a throw-in. I reckon he’s the first Leicester player to have touched the ball in over two minutes of play.
ET22: The players on the pitch seem to have reached a sort of unofficial entente cordiale, with nobody really trying a leg any more. Leicester seem happy enough to let Chelsea have the ball, on the unspoken condition that their visitors don’t score any more goals.
ET19: David Luiz gets caught out of position again, lets Jamie Vardy get in behind him and is forced to shove the striker. He gets booked and Leicester win a free-kick wide on the right. The ball’s swung into the mixer, but sails out of play.
ET18: With their opponents down to 10 men, Chelsea’s players look content to spray the ball around and keep possession letting it do the work while the 10 men of Leicester chase shadows.
Second half of extra time: Leicester 2-4 Chelsea
ET16: Leicester get the second half of extra time started.
Half-time in extra time: Leicester 2-4 Chelsea
A quick-fire brace from Cesc Fabregas seems to have won the game for Chelsea against 10-man Leicester, but there’s another 15 minutes to go for Leicester to try to claw their way back into the game. Stranger things have happened, but they look a beaten docket as far as this match is concerned.
ET15: We’ll have one minute of added time in the first half of extra time that followed the added time at the end of the second half of normal time.
ET10: Chelsea attack down the right, with Azpilicueta trying to link up with Eden Hazard. Ben Chilwell intervenes to cut out the danger. He’s another youngster who’s impressed in Leicester’s side tonight. From Milton Keynes but a product of Leicester’s academy, he spent time out on loan at Huddersfield last season and has had a decent debut tonight. Having said that, he’s just been booked and was perhaps lucky not to get a red card. Claudio has a word ...
ET7: With Leicester down to 10 men, trailing by two goals and looking ahead to a lunchtime kick-off at Old Trafford on Saturday, I reckon you could canvas every player on each team, both managers and all the supporters in the ground tonight and the vast majority would vote for referee Bobby Madley to stop this game now. Obviously it’s not within his remit, but Leicester’s players have the air about them of men who know the jig is up. Chelsea are giving them the runaround in a big way.
ET6: Zieler saves well from Matic, getting down low to his right to tip the ball around the pright for a corner. Chelsea take it short, but nothing comes of it.
GOAL! Leicester 2-4 Chelsea (Fabregas)
Fabregas does it again, scoring inside the fourth minute of extra time. He was waiting in an expanse of space in the Leicester penalty area to pounce on a poor punch from Zieler. His first touch was sublime and teed him up for his second: a rasping drive past the goalkeeper.
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GOAL! Leicester 2-3 Chelsea (Fabregas)
Grrrrr! Cesc Fabregas taunts those who didn’t want extra time with a goal inside two minutes of the restart. It was a move of scintillating speed on the edge of the Leicester penalty area, which culminated with the Spaniard pouncing to blast home after sprinting on to a ball trapped on his behalf by Diego Costa. Leicester’s defenders were left completely bamboozled there.
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ET1: Diego Costa gets the first half of extra time going.
Full-time: Leicester 2-2 Chelsea
Cesar Azpilicueta’s spectacular effort means the game finishes all square after 90 minutes, so we’ll have extra time which I’m professionally obliged to pretend to be enthused about. Whoop! Whoop! Having gone into a two-goal lead, Leicester are very much the underdogs, having been reduced to 10 men by the late dismissal of Marcin Wasilewski. We’ll have another 30 minutes of play, with penalties to follow when, inevitably, the deadlock remains unbroken.
90+4 min: We’re in the final minute of time added on, with the scores level between 10-man Leicester and their visitors Chelsea. Extra time beckons.
90+3 min: Daniel Amartey allows Costa to give him the slip and the Chelsea substitute shoots wide of the near post from a narrow angle.
90 min: Leicester substitution: Daniel Amartey on for Demarai Gray. His first task is to defend a Chelsea corner, where the ball breaks kindly for Victor Moses on the fringe of the penalty area. Moses tries his luck, but pulls his shot wide of the left upright. If he’d got his boot around that one, it would have been unstoppable.
Red card! Wasilewski gets his second booking
89 min: Marcin Wasilewski gets his second yellow card for a silly challenge on Diego Costa, who he barged into. Needless to say, Costa made the most of it, but the booking was fair.
88 min: David Luiz steps up to take the free-kick, but puts it over the bar. Chelsea substitution: Eden Hazard on for Pedro. In other housekeeping: Nemanja Matic got booked for some indiscretion or other a few minutes ago.
87 min: Chelsea win a free-kick just outside the Leicester box, a mite left of centre. Cue: David Luiz.
86 min: Jeff Schlupp blows a gilt-edged chance to win the game for Leicester, stepping over a fine delivery into the box from Andy King, presumably labouring under the misapprehension that there was a player in a better position behind him. He could have shot there, standing all alone about eight or nine yards out.
84 min: Costa latches on to a long ball from David Luiz halfway inside the Leicester half and takes on three defenders. Using his strength on the ball, he eventually fashions a shot that brings a smart save out of Zieler, who is forced to save again from the Spain international’s follow-up effort. Good play from both men. This is very entertaining fare - both sides are going all out for the win here. It’s quite obvious that neither fancies extra time.
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83 min: A mix-up between Morgan and Wasilewski allows Diego Costa to dart between them and unleash a low diagonal shot from a tight angle. Zieler saves. Earlier, Jamie Vardy had threatened to wreak havoc in the Chelsea defence after David Luiz had once again misjudged the flight of the ball.
79 min: Chelsea substitution: Nathaniel Chalobah makes a long overdue debut for Chelsea, having represented England 98 times at various levels and made 97 appearances for various clubs while out on loan at Watford, Nottingham Forest, Middlesbrough, Burnley, Reading and Napoli. And to think some people criticise Chelsea for not bringing young players through, eh? How dare they? He’s on for Micy Batshuayi.
77 min: Within seconds of coming on, Vardy wins a corner for his team by chasing down Asmir Begovic as the goalkeeper attempted to deal with a backpass and was forced to put the ball out of play.
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76 min: Leicester make substitutions either side of the corner. Leonardo Ulloa is on for Shinji Okazaki, while Jamie Vardy replaces Ahmed Musa.
76 min: Andy King fluffs a great scoring chance from the ensuing corner with a poor header at the far post. He should have scored.
74 min: Chance! Ahmed Musa misses a glorious chance to put Leicester ahead. His chance came from a David Luiz error, with the Brazilian hopelessly misjudging the flight of a long ball from the back, allowing Musa to dart in behind him. He deftly tries to lift the ball over the onrushing Begovic, but the goalkeeper got a fingertip to the ball and managed to divert it wide of the upright. Great goalkeeping or a terrible miss? It’s difficult to tell. Perhaps a combination of both.
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74 min: Costa picks out Victor Moses on the right wing and he sends the ball into the mixer. Leicester clear.
73 min: The camera cuts to the Leicester bench, where Jamie Vardy looks eager to get involved. For the time being, his manager is keeping his powder dry.
70 min: Victor Moses cuts in from the right touchline and overcooks a cross, sending Pedro scampering towards the far touchline in a bid to keep the ball in play. He does so but Chgelsea are unable to capitalise on his industry.
69 min: Chance! Having just come on, Diego Costa gets in behind two ball-watching Leicester defenders to pounce on a ball from deep and slot a diagonal shot wide of the far post when scoring looked easier. He looks disgusted with himself and well he might. That was a hideous miss for an in-form striker. He beat Zieler, but couldn’t steer his effort inside the far post. Shocking defending from Leicester, it should be noted.
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68 min: Chance! Ron-Robert Zieler saves brilliantly from Michy Batshuayi, stretching every sinew to claw away a long range effort after the Belgian turned and shot from the edge of the penalty area.
67 min: Antonio Conte is the first of the two managers to sound the Big Gun klaxon. Chelsea substitution: Diego Costa on for Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
64 min: SIgns of activity on the Leicester City bench, where Jamie Vardy is warming up. Leicester have a lunchtime appointment at Old Trafford on Saturday, so Claudio Ranieri is unlikely to risk any of his big guns unless he feels it’s absolutely necessary. He ceertainly won’t want extra time and penalties here.
61 min: Pedro and Danny Simpson have a frank exchange of views that ends with both men all smiles, as the latter accuses the former of throwing himself to the ground in a bid to gull the referee.
59 min: Cesc Fabregas attempts to pick out Michy Batshuayi with a ball from deep. The Chelsea striker had got between the two central defenders, but Fabregas’s searching ball zipped off the turf and straight into the arms of Ron-Robert Zieler in the Leicester goal.
58 min: Demarai Gray goes to ground in the Chelsea penalty area under a “challenge from Azpilicueta after being teed up by a good ball from the left by Andy King. Referee Bobby Madley is having none of it and replays show that Gray kicked his leg in the direction of the goalscorer before throwing himself theatrically to the ground. Tut-tut.
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56 min: Ahmed Musa’s been impressive for Leicester tonight, leading the line well and proving a more than capable hold-up merchant. He concedes a cheap free-kick here, barging Gary Cahill out of play when there was no need to cede possession so cheaply.
55 min: Leicester break on a counter-attack with Okazaki on the ball as he gallops up the centre. He attempts to thread a pass between two defenders and pick out Ahmed Musa’s run. Gary Cahill reads his intentions and blocks.
54 min: Okazaki wins a free-kick halfway inside his own half after an over-exuberant challenge from Pedro. Leicester clear their lines, with Andy King pumping the ball up the field.
53 min: Marcin Wasilewski is booked for some indiscretion or other. That’s the first caution of what’s been a fairly violence free encounter.
51 min: That’s Azpilicueta’s fourth goal for Chelsea and his first since January, but it was an absolute beauty. Standing a couple of yards outside the Leicester penalty area, he caught a headed clearance perfectly and the ball flew into the top corner.
GOAL! Leicester 2-2 Chelsea (Azpilicueta 49)
Oof! Azpilicueta scores with the sweetest of right-footed volleys from the edge of the penalty area, leaving Zieler standing flatfooted and gazing in admiration. It all stemmed from that Leicester corner, from which Chelsea broke up the field. That’s a sensational equaliser from the full-back.
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48 min: Leicester win a free-kick on the halfway line, which is lumped long. Chilwell wins the header on the left side of the Chelsea penalty area and the ball breaks for Schlupp. He shoots through the legs of Cahill and wins a corner.
Leicester 2-1 Chelsea - second half is go!
46 min: Chelsea have a shot almost straight from the kick-off, with Cesc Fabregas trying his luck from 25 yards after being teed up by Azpilicueta. Zieler saves comfortably, with the ball at chest height. There are no changes on either side.
Half-time: Leicester 2-1 Chelsea
The teams may be far from full strength, but it’s been an entertaining half of football nonetheless. Shinji Okazaki took advantage of some slapstick defending to give Leicester a two-goal lead, but Gary Cahill made amends of a sort with a goal deep in first half injury time that keeps his side in the game. Expect both managers to be fuming, but the crowd will be happy enough with what they’ve seen so far.
GOAL! Leicester 2-1 Chelsea (Cahill 45)
Chelsea win a corner, which Fabregas swings in from the right. Having given Wes Morgan the slip, Gary Cahill scores with a powerful header from deep that crept in at the near post.
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45 min: Moses and Loftus-Cheek are showing signs of life down the right flank and they combine to good effect again as the latter attempts to tee up Batshuayi. Marcin Wasilewski stays tight on the striker to prevent him getting a shot off.
43 min: Good pressure from Chelsea, as a Ruben Loftus-Cheek cross from the right is allowed run through to Pedro, who returns it with interest. Wes Morgan allows the ball to run under his foot and is lucky there are no Chelsea players on hand to blast the ball goalwards. That’s the first sign of disarray we’ve seen in the Leicester City ranks, compared to the default state of disarray in which Chelsea’s defenders appear to have found themselves.
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41 min: And no, obviously I don’t mean on the local rec where there aren’t any goal nets. We’ve all done that! Demarai Gray almost puts Leicester 3-0 up with a rasping diagonal shot that fizzes across the bows of Asmir Begovic.
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38 min: Shinji Okazaki hadn’t scored since mid-March before tonight, but has netted twice in less than 20 minutes tonight. I say netted, although neither of his goals actually ended up in the back of the net. A hat-trick without the ball actually touching any goal-net must be something to aspire to, surely. Has it been done before?
35 min: That was a splendid goal from Leicester, who won the ball after pressurising Chelsea deep in their own half. From the edge of ther penalty area, Andy King spotted Okazaki’s run towards the six yard box and laid the ball on a plate for the Japanese striker. His finish was sublime, stabbing the bouncing ball into the turf so it beat Begovic and crossed the line despite Azpilicueta’s desperate attempt to hack clear.
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GOAL! Leicester 2-0 Chelsea (Okazaki 34)
Leicester City double of their lead, with Shinji Okazaki bagging his second with a very tidy finish after excellent work from Andy King.
32 min: Ruben Lofteus-Cheek gets in behind Ben Chilwell to win a corner for Chelsea. It’s followed by another, which Cesc Fabregas takes. Leicester half-clear, but only as far as Fabregas, who drops the ball into the penalty area to Pedro. The Spaniard tries to poke the ball around Zieler and into the bottom left-hand corner, but fails to do so. He was offside anyway, so it wouldn’t have counted.
31 min: Chelsea attack on a rare sortie down the right flank orchestrated by Azpilicueta and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, but the ball eventually finds its way to Pedro on the right.
28 min: Marcos Alonso, previously a finalist in this tournament with Sunderland (no, really) larrups the ball forward as Chelsea are forced to clear their lines again. Leicester win a throw-in, which Alonso clears with another swing of his left boot. Michy Batshuayayi attempts to get the flick on, but cops an accidental-ish poke in the eye from Marcin Wasilewski, who caught the striker with a flailing hand.
25 min: Chance! Michy Batashuayi gets between defenders at the far post to get on the end of a Pedro cross from the left touchline. His header is poor and with the goal at his mercy, he heads harmlessly wide despite being unmarked and just five yards out.
24 min: Having been dominated until they scored, Leicester are now very much on the front foot. Demarai Gray sends in a cross from the left touchline, but it’s too near Asmir Begovic to prompt any more panic in the Chelsea penalty area.
22 min: That was a quite comical series of errors which led to that Chelsea goal, although I very much doubt that Antonio Conte will see the funny side. Four members of Chelsea’s back five committed blunders to allow Okazaki to score from a very tight angle, and David Luiz’s many detractors will be astonished to learn that he was the only vaguely innocent party.
18 min: That was totally shambolic from Chelsea. Marcos Alonso started the damage by giving the ball away, allowing Ahmed Musa to send in a wonderful cross from the right. Cesar Azpilicueta and Gary Cahill dithered over their clearance of the bouncing ball and while Asmir Begovic flapped at his near post, Okazaki headed home. It was hacked clear, but Referee Madley awarded the goal as the ball had clearly crossed the line.
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GOAL! Leicester 1-0 Chelsea (Okazaki 17)
Chelsea go a goal down having given the ball away cheaply again. Okazaki ends his goal drought to put the hosts a goal up.
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14 min: Until now! Having had a shocker against Liverpool on Friday night, Gary Cahill takes a heavy touch while under no pressure whatsoever and gifts possession to Ahmed Musa about 40 yards from his own goal. The Leicester striker hares towards goal with David Luiz in hot pursuit and eventually goes to ground under a challenge from Cahill, who’d scrambled back in a bid to spare his own blushes. Leicester’s fans appeal for a penalty, but none is forthcoming.
13 min: Chelsea are dominating here, no doubt about that. Leicester are sitting back, letting their visitors have the lion’s share of possession and come at them, as is customary. There’s been no sign of them attacking on the break yet.
12 min: Victor Moses plays the ball wide to the touchline-hugging Pedro, who’s been busy so far. He overcooks his cross and 19-year-old Leicester left-back Ben Chilwell clears.
10 min: Batshuayi appeals for a penalty after a Pedro cross drops on to the arm of Marcin Wasilewski, who’d missed his clearing header. That should have been a spot-kick - the Pole has dodged a bullet there.
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8 min: Matic plays the ball down the left touchline towards Pedro, who feeds Marcos Alonso on the overlap. He drills the ball towards the near post, where Batshuayi was lurking with intent. Leicester clear their lines courtesy of Zieler.
6 min: Replays show Pedro was indeed offside, by the skin of his left boot, but the way in which he left Danny Simpson in his dust as he chased Luiz’s excellent Route One up and under from deep will be a source of concern for Claudio Ranieri.
4 min: Leicester build from the back again, with Marcin Wasilewski prodding the ball through the centre of the pitch. Chelsea win possession, Luiz lumps a long ball over the top and Pedro wins the chase to get the ball around Ron-Robert Zieler and get the ball in the net, but his effort is ruled offside. I’m not so sure it was.
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3 min: Leicester get forward and the ball’s played to Demarai Gray who tries a speculative drive from distance. His shot takes a deflection off Chelsea debutant Marcos Alonso, but Asmir Begovic gets down to prevent the ball going out for a corner.
1 min: Chelsea line up in a 4-4-2 and dominate the early possession. Victor Moses drills a low ball aimlessly through the Leicester penalty area, It’s neither shot nor cross and has way too much zip on it for Michy Batshuahyi to get anywhere near it.
Leicester City v Chelsea is go ...
Bobby Madley gets proceedings under way with a shrill blast of his whistle, prompting Chelsea to get the ball rolling. They wear black shirts with fluorescent trim tonight, while Leicester’s players wear blue shirts, blue shorts and blue socks.
Not long now: Wes Morgan and Gary Cahill lead their teams out on to the King Power Stadium sward, their arrival heralded by a trumpeter whosde instrument sounds like it could do with an MOT. Kick-off is just two minutes away.
If it's all square after 90 minutes ...
In the event of a draw at the end of 90 minutes, we’ll have extra time and then penalties, if required. Fingers crossed ...
Antonio Conte speaks ...
Asked about keeping three of the back four that played against Liverpool in his line-up: “It is important to give continuity,” he says. “Today I play three players: Azpi and Cahill and David Luiz, and also for the first time, Alonso. For him it is the first appearance tonight. This game is important, it is important for the defensive line ... for everyone.”
Claudio Ranieri speaks
Asked if he thinks he’s picked a team strong enough to beat Chelsea, the Italian has this to say: “Yes, I think we try to do our best. We are playing three big matches and now is the time to give some opportunities to young players to grow up. I think we have a very experienced blend of experienced and young players. I’m looking forward to seeing Demarai Gray, Ben Chilwell, Ahmed Musa and Jeff Schlupp, who is back from injury. It is important for me to see how they play and how they link together.”
Team news ...
Just the seven changes from Claudio Ranieri ahead of his team’s trip to Old Trafford this weekend, with Ron-Robert Zieler, Danny Simpson, Wes Morgan and Danny Drinkwater the only members of the team that started against Burnley who line-up tonight. Just four of the Chelsea players who began their team’s defeat against Liverpool on Friday night start tonight, with Cesar Azpilicueta, Gary Cahill, David Luiz and Nemanja Matic having been deemed unworthy of a night on the bench with their feet up.
Leicester City v Chelsea line-ups
Leicester: Zieler, Simpson, Morgan, Wasilewski, Chilwell, Gray, King, Drinkwater, Schlupp, Okazaki, Musa.
Subs: Vardy, Hamer, Amartey, Kapustka, Ulloa, Mahrez, Benalouane.
Chelsea: Begovic, Azpilicueta, Cahill, Luiz, Alonso, Matic, Fabregas, Moses, Loftus-Cheek, Pedro, Batshuayi.
Subs: Kante, Hazard, Courtois, Costa, Willian, Chalobah, Aina.
Referee: Robert Madley (West Yorkshire)
Pre-match musings ...
Leicester entertain Chelsea in the third round of a tournament that is likely to rank behind the Premier League, Champions League (in the case of Leicester), FA Cup and both transfer windows in the List Of Competitions Most Likely To Ignite The Interest Of Leicester And Chelsea Fans this season.
This is Leicester’s third match in seven days, following emphatic wins over Club Bruges and Burnley, and Claudio Ranieri will be without goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and defensive midfielder Nampalys Mendy. However, he confirmed yesterday that Danny Simpson, Jeff Schlupp and Yohan Benalouane are all available for the fixture. Goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler will start in place of Schmeichel, who is suffering from concussion.
Chelsea fielded a decidedly second string side for their second round win over Bristol Rovers and are likely to do so again with a trip to Arsenal ahead of them this weekend. John Terry and Kurt Zouma have already been ruled out through injury, which should see David Luiz, one of his team’s more impressive performers in defeat against Liverpool last Friday, make the second start of his latest tenure at Chelsea.
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