ENGLISH LEAGUE CUP Chelsea 1 QPR 0: JOE COLE had dreamed of this moment for eight long months. From time to time during the arduous rehabilitation from his cruciate knee ligament injury, the Chelsea midfielder closed his eyes and heard the roar of the Stamford Bridge crowd and imagined the thrill of a return to first-team football.
When the long overdue feelings returned, he could also celebrate his part in what proved to be the winning goal.
It was Cole’s pass early in the second half that shredded the QPR backline and urged Salomon Kalou to gallop through on goal. There was still plenty of work to be done but the Ivorian’s composure and finish matched the slick build-up.
For Cole, who was pressed through the whole 90 minutes, and his team, this was an eighth consecutive victory of the season. Carlo Ancelotti, the coach, knows only the grinding satisfaction of result after result. The Rangers co-owner Flavio Briatore, meanwhile, has already supervised one car crash and he could be pleased that there was not another here. But despite their non-stop endeavour, Rangers lacked the finesse to fashion anything of note in front of goal.
The major pre-match talking point concerned the identity of the Chelsea starting line-up. Although Ancelotti retained just Florent Malouda from the side that beat Tottenham here on Sunday, he began with only two players from the club’s academy – the central defender Sam Hutchinson and the striker Fabio Borini.
For both, it represented a full debut. Jeffrey Bruma, another academy centre-half, was a substitute. Much has been made of the lack of first-team progress of the club’s youth players, who, until recently, were under the charge of the sporting director Frank Arnesen. Yet, in some respects, the sight of two of them in the starting team was encouraging.
Ancelotti might have discovered that it is no easy task telling John Terry that he must sit on the bench. Chelsea’s leading stars always insist on playing. It was also understood that Gael Kakuta, the academy winger at the centre of the club’s 12-month transfer window ban, could have been selected because Chelsea had still not received Fifa’s full written explanation of its ruling by kick-off. Kakuta’s four-month suspension only begins when the paperwork arrives. The club expect to receive it by 5pm tomorrow.
Jim Magilton set up QPR to maintain two disciplined banks of four behind the strikers and to press their more illustrious hosts.
Although they created little of note themselves in the first-half, they largely restricted Chelsea to pot shots from distance, the most notable being Juliano Belletti’s 30-yard free-kick, which demanded a smart save from the goalkeeper, Tom Heaton.
Chelsea’s clearest opening of the first half was created by Yuri Zhirkov, the €19 million summer signing, who made his debut at left-back. His cross invited Borini to flick a header towards goal that drifted high. Cole also went close from a Paulo Ferreira cross.
Magilton was an exuberant presence on the touchline, pacing from the dug-out to bellow instructions to his players and they settled into a comfortable stride. They knew that one chance could swing the tie dramatically in their favour and, from a Rowan Vine pass, Wayne Routledge was narrowly beaten to the ball by the outrushing Henrique Hilario.
Chelsea needed a spark and Frank Lampard’s introduction for Malouda helped them to raise the tempo. Yet it was Cole who prised Rangers apart. He released Kalou through the inside left channel and, with Rangers back-pedalling, he cut inside Mikele Leigertwood and drilled a low right-footed shot in off the far post.
Guardian Service
CHELSEA:Hilario, Ivanovic, Paulo Ferreira, Hutchinson (Terry 77), Belletti, Malouda (Lampard 46), Zhirkov (Ashley Cole 69), Mikel, Joe Cole, Borini, Kalou. Subs not used: Turnbull, Essien, Matic, Bruma.
QPR: Heaton, Borrowdale, Stewart, Leigertwood, Gorkss, Routledge, Rowlands (Ephraim 73), Faurlin, Buzsaky, Vine (Taarabt 66), Simpson (Pellicori 73). Subs not used: Cerny, Ramage, Mahon, Agyemang.
Referee: M Jones(Cheshire).
