For the first time in his career, Jose Mourinho has lost a League Cup tie before it went to penalties. His Chelsea side appeared to have progression to the semifinals wrapped up late in their match against Sunderland, but an improbable equalizer by Blues trainee Fabio Borini forced extra time. With just one minute remaining before penalties, Ki Sung-Yueng stunned Chelsea again, firing the Black Cats through with a 2-1 win.
Sunderland vs. Chelsea: Final score 2-1, Black Cats pull out stunning comeback
After 88 minutes of nothing, Sunderland pulled out a stunning equalizer and extra time winner to knock Chelsea out of the League Cup.
Stu Forster
The first half was very open, but produced almost nothing of consequence. Sunderland struggled to contain Chelsea's wide players, but they never forced Vito Mannone into a tough save or found Samuel Eto'o in a dangerous spot with any crosses. David Luiz was forced to take a yellow card when Emanuele Giaccherini threatened to go clear on goal in the 25th minute, but Sunderland wouldn't come any closer to scoring than that.
Sunderland were absolutely deflated just a minute into the second half, with Lee Cattermole turning in an own goal. He tried to shield off Frank Lampard away from a cross as he was barreling down on goal, but inadvertently directed the ball over the line in his own goal.
After that, Chelsea sat back a bit more and Sunderland had absolutely no answer. What ensued was a very poor second half in which neither team looked likely to score until the very end, when Sunderland found an equalizer out of absolutely nowhere. Giaccherini set up the chance in the 88th minute with a through ball to Jozy Altidore, whose effort was saved by Mark Schwarzer. It fell to Borini, who finished in traffic from a narrow angle.
Both teams had half-chances between then and the whistle, but neither was able to convert, and they headed into extra time.
Extra time was similar to the second half, with a very limited amount of action, but some excellent chances. David Luiz had a volley stopped in the 94th minute, but the Black Cats had the much bigger chances in the extra periods. Michael Essien -- who deputized at right back after replacing the injured Cesar Azpilicueta -- was forced to clear a shot by Altidore off the line in the 111th minute and Mark Schwarzer made a stunning save on a Ki header two minutes later.
Ki got his revenge six minutes later, taking advantage of some poor defending from Essien, who looked like a player who hadn’t spent much time at right back. He failed to track a run by Ki onto a pass by Borini and the entire Chelsea defense backed off him as he dribbled to the penalty spot, then finished calmly past Schwarzer to stun the Blues and send his side through.
Sunderland: Mannone, Dossena, Brown, O’Shea, Celustka, Cattermole, Larsson, Gardner (Ki 63’), Giaccherini (Bardsley 120’), Altidore, Johnson (Borini 74’)
Goals: Borini (88’), Ki (119’)
Chelsea: Schwarzer, Cole, Cahill, David Luiz, Azpilicueta (Essien 70’), Lampard, Mikel, Willian, De Bruyne, Schürrle (Hazard 83’), Eto’o (Ba 74’)
Goals: Cattermole (OG 46’)
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