Woah, way to go easy on Big Sam’s heart, eh…

This was a terrific cup tie, with the balance tipped in the hosts’ favour by Carlo Ancelotti’s dubious decision to use all three subs at half-time. When Salomon Kalou went off in the second half, with what looked like a groin injury, Chelsea were down to ten men, with extra time looming.

It’s all very well to mimic Jose Mourinho’s ballsy block half-time substitutions, but do it in a league game, Carlo – in a cup game which could last for 120 minutes plus pens, it’s asking for trouble. And so it proved, with Chelsea losing on pens.

Paul Robinson was the hero, just minutes after becoming the villain, as his gaffe allowed Paulo Ferreira to level the scores at 3-3 with less than 30 seconds of extra time remaining. Robbo made up for that error by saving from Michael Ballack (good pen, better save) and Gael Kakuta (shit pen, blasted straight at the keeper) and so Chelsea’s dreams of a quintuple (incl. Community Shield) are gone.

Photos of the game below:

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Blackburn Rovers' Steven Nzonzi (right) and Chelsea's Joe Cole (left) battle for the ball

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