(Football news) It was some form of retribution for Gallagher, who saved a poor Chelsea team against Championship opponents after squandering two golden opportunities in the EFL Cup final against Liverpool over the weekend.
After a mistake at the back by the hosts, young player Mateo Joseph scored his first goal as a professional to put Leeds ahead early on. Later, he leveled the tie again after goals from Nicolas Jackson and Mykhaylo Mudryk had turned the game around.
Following the late goal that completed Chelsea’s 3-2 victory, the Blues will host Leicester City in the quarterfinals at Stamford Bridge. This matchup will be a rematch of the FA Cup final from 2021, in which the Foxes prevailed.
After suffering a sixth straight domestic cup final loss at the weekend against Liverpool in the EFL Cup at Wembley, Chelsea set about continuing their fight to reach another one.
All the stats pointed towards them doing so too, considering they had won six in a row at home to Leeds at home and had progressed past the fifth round on 13 of the last 15 occasions.
Leeds have been in superb form though, having yet to taste defeat in 2024, and in the midst of a nine-game winning run in the Championship which has brought them back into the title picture.
Despite resting the likes of Wilfried Gnonto and Crysencio Summerville, and being without Georginio Rutter through injury, Daniel Farke’s men hit the ground running early and should have taken the lead when Daniel James outpaced and outmuscled Alfie Gilchrist, before sending a lob over Robert Sanchez wide of the target.
The first goal came from the ensuing goal kick, though, when Axel Disasi’s disastrous pass out of the back was latched upon. Jaidon Anthony then found Joseph in the center, and he shot past a perplexed Sanchez.
For the first thirty minutes of the match, Chelsea appeared quite nervous and gave up possession frequently. Their only accomplishments were erroneous pot shots.
In the fifteenth minute, though, a deft play by Moises Caicedo that saw Jackson thread the ball in down the right led to an equaliser. The Chelsea forward’s shot went through Illan Meslier’s legs to tie the game.
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