Middlesbrough stuns Chelsea as Blues lose first leg
Middlesbrough will travel to Stamford Bridge for the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final with a one-goal advantage after stunning the Premier League outfit 1-0 with a thoroughly stubborn performance at Riverside Stadium.
Local boy Hayden Hackney scored the only goal of the game, running on to a perfect ball provided by Isiah Jones into th six-yard box to nick it past Dorde Petrovic in the Chelsea goal the 37th minute, sending the home fans into delirium.
It was one of only two shots on target for Boro, which spent almost the entire second half defending as Chelsea finished with 72 per cent of the possession and 18 attempts, but nothing to show for a largely blunt display.
The sides will meet for the second leg on Thursday 25 January to decide which of them will travel to Wembley fo the final against either Liverpool or Fulham, with EFL Championship side Middlesbrough holding the slight advantage.
The game started brightly but also badly for Boro when Emmanuel Latte Lath was forced off after coming close to scoring in the opening minute of the match. As he ran on to a ball over the top, Axel Disasi chased him down and slid in to hamper his effort, replays suggesting a penalty might have been awared had VAR been available for the match, which it is not for EFL matches.
There were real shouts for a penalty in the eighth minute as Alex Bangura's cross into the box appeared to hit the arm of Enzo Fernandez, but again play was waved on.
Bangura then became the second player to succumb to injury in the 17th minute as he came off second best in a foot race with Noni Madueke, falling to the groud clutching his right hamstring and eventually being replaced by Matthew Clarke.
A subsequent change of system left Boro needing to adjust, and it almost fell behind on the half-hour mark when Jonny Howson gifted possession to Cole Palmer, but the Chelsea forward's shot went just wide of Australian keeper Tom Glover's left post.
Palmer's miss was compounded seven minutes later when Jones raced on to a ball over the top and provided his perfect assist for Hackney, who made no mistake in front of goal and put the home side ahead.
Palmer was again guilty of wasting opportunities in added-time at the end of the first half. A strike from distance by Fernandez should have been easily gobbled up by Glover, but the Australian fumbled the catch horribly as Palmer raced in to bury the loose ball, but he somehow fired way over the crossbar from no more than six yards.
Just a minute later, Palmer again found himself staring down Glover after being played through beautifully by Moises Caicedo, but his shot was weak and Glover was able to get down and make a save easily.
The second half saw Chelsea dominate possession without ever really threatening Boro's goal, barring a few long-range post-shots which either went off target of left Glover with little to do as Michael Carrick's side organised its defence perfectly.
The sold-out Riverside crowd eupted at full-time, but the small travelling contengent was left angered as most of Chelsea's players headed straight for the tunnel after the final whistle without going to thank their fans, who had made the more than 400km journey to cheer on their heroes.
Thiago Silva eventually went over to placate them, but it was a bad look for Mauricio Pochettino's men, who soured an already miserable evening for their supporters.
