After Tuesday’s thrilling game at the Madejski Stadium where Arsenal came from 4 goals down to beat Reading 7-5 after extra time, Wednesday night’s fixtures were always going to struggle to reach those heights. Yet at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea played host to Manchester United for the second time in a week, both team’s tried their hardest emulate the previous night’s classic.
Both teams fielded weakened sides for this Capital One fourth round tie, choosing to blood a number of younger players and those on the fringe of the first team.
However, it was 39-year-old Ryan Giggs who opened the scoring after Oriol Romeu got caught on the ball and Giggs, played in by Anderson, slotted past Petr Cech in the Chelsea goal.
Chelsea were soon level though through a David Luiz penalty after Buttner had brought down Victor Moses.
It was very much a case of ‘you score, we score’ at Stamford Bridge as Hernandez put United 2-1 in the lead just before half-time after a mistake by Luiz, only for Garry Cahill to equalise on 52 minutes.
United came back straight away though with Nani starting and finishing a great counter attacking move to give United the advantage.
Just as it looked as though Sir Alex Ferguson’s team would leave West London victorious again, Eden Hazard, who had came on for Lucas Piazon, equalised from the spot after Ramires had been bundled over by United defender Wootton.
Into extra time and Chelsea’s experience started to show as they finished the game with a flourish. First Daniel Sturridge took the score to 4-3, after another Wootton error, and then Hazard played a beautiful ball through for Ramires to finish the tie.
United threatened a late comeback when Giggs converted a penalty after Hernandez had been fouled. However, Chelsea hung on to be in the draw for the quarterfinals.
