Phil Lythell
Sport News 24/7Robinson heroics send Blackburn into Carling Cup semi-final
By Phil Lythell, on 3rd December 2009, 13:36 UTC
Blackburn qualified for the semi-finals of the Carling Cup after a dramatic penalty shootout victory over the Barclays Premier League leaders Chelsea.
Paul Robinson was the hero after he saved spot-kicks from the usually deadly Michael Ballack and controversial teenage star Gael Kakuta to book a place in the last four for the Lancashire side.
A thrilling cup tie at Ewood Park began with Nikola Kalinic opening the scoring for the home side after just nine minutes against a Chelsea line-up shorn of the likes of John Terry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Ashley Cole and Ricardo Carvalho with a total of eight changes made from the side that won at Arsenal.
A reshuffle at half-time saw Blues manager Carlo Ancelotti make three substitutions bringing on Drogba, Kakuta and centre back Jeffrey Bruma. The changes paid immediate dividends as Drogba and Salomon Kalou made the scoreline 2-1 in the visitors favour within eight minutes of the restart.
Brett Emerton brought the scores level on 64 minutes before Chelsea were reduced to ten men when Kalou left the field injured with his manager having already made all three permitted substitutions.
Extra-time started perfectly for Blackburn with Benni Mccarthy slotting home past Hilario from the penalty spot to give Rovers a 3-2 lead and it seemed to be enough until Paulo Ferreira scored only his second Chelsea goal in over five years at the club with the last kick of the game to take the tie to penalties.
The unflappable Ballack saw his attempt saved by Robinson before Hilario saved from Kalinic to erase any advantage. As the shootout entered sudden death, Kakuta elected to smash the ball down the middle but Robinson - who had dived to his left for all the previous spot-kicks -elected to stay still and saved from the young Frenchman to send Ewood Park into delirium and Blackburn into the next round.
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