23 hours ago
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As Facundo Buonanotte saddled up beside Alejandro Garnacho on the advertising hoardings in front of the pocket of away supporters, after the latter opened the scoring at a jam-packed Cardiff City Stadium, for a moment or two everything seemed just fine in the often chaotic and complex world of Chelsea. The pair exhibited cheesy smiles as João Pedro played photographer, pretending to capture their celebration.
Then, with 15 minutes remaining, the hosts equalised through David Turnbull’s brilliant diving header, detonating the kind of noise not heard in these parts for a long time, and another awkward 48 hours were on the cards for Enzo Maresca.
Questions would surely have been asked of him by the Chelsea hierarchy had the League One leaders reached the Carabao Cup semi-finals at their expense. Fortunately for Maresca, Pedro Neto struck a late goal, with Garnacho adding his second at the death to spare any embarrassment, even if Chelsea did make wholesale changes from the win against Everton on Saturday. It was after that game that Maresca’s cryptic comments sparked doubts about his future.
Progressing to a third semi‑final in 18 months, another line Maresca has been at pains to repeat in recent days, seemingly could not solve everything in the Welsh capital. The Italian was stony-faced as he reviewed his side’s performance, insisting his demeanour was owing to the three-hour coach journey home to Cobham, Chelsea’s training ground. “I will watch two Newcastle games,” Maresca said. “There is no time. Time is for the players. For us as a staff, we’re going to be focused on the next one, that is Newcastle [on Saturday] so we’re going to prepare.”
Asked if he had spoken with his bosses since his surprise remarks, Maresca replied: “No, as I said yesterday [Monday], the day after Everton, I started to prepare for Cardiff, focus on Cardiff. Now I just said on the bus, I will watch Newcastle and I didn’t speak with one.”
Chelsea’s supporters sang Maresca’s name during second‑half stoppage time and again as he and his squad went to applaud their fans. Was it a boost to hear that backing? “Absolutely,” he said. “It was a great moment, [one] I appreciate, [I am] always thankful. They have always been there, knowing that any support in the world when you don’t win, they are not happy. When you don’t win games, they have been not happy, but it’s normal. But overall, the fans have always been there.
“These are the kind of games that I fall in love even more with the players because you cannot imagine how easy it is to slip, to slide, because they are tricky games. Every season there are teams that lose against League Two or League One teams. So you need to pay attention, to do the right things.”
Cardiff were determined to savour the occasion, this stadium a sellout for a club match for the first time since April 2019, when Liverpool visited in the Premier League, and Neil Warnock was in the home dugout. These days it is Brian Barry-Murphy, by his own admission a Pep Guardiola obsessive. Barry-Murphy, like Maresca, is also a Guardiola protege of sorts; the trio worked together at Manchester City when Barry-Murphy was in charge of their development squad, succeeding Maresca in the role.
Moisés Caicedo captained a youthful Chelsea side that featured four teenagers, while Tosin Adarabioyo was the only player over the age of 24 in their starting lineup. Maresca was seemingly not overly enamoured with his side’s anaemic first‑half performance and introduced Garnacho and João Pedro in place of Tyrique George and Marc Guiu.
Buonanotte, who Barry-Murphy worked with at Leicester, laid on the opener after intercepting a rare lapse by Cardiff’s teenage centre‑back Dylan Lawlor. Buonanotte spied Garnacho to his left and the Argentinian picked his spot in the far corner, sending a neat first‑time strike past Nathan Trott in the Cardiff goal. A few minutes later Buonanotte, now in the groove, sent a delicious shot at goal that forced a fingertip save from Trott.
Cardiff were drained but only momentarily, rebooting to equalise and spark extraordinary scenes. Perry Ng sent a wonderful cross into the box from the right and Turnbull flung himself at the ball, heading past a hapless Filip Jörgensen in the Chelsea goal. Fans in the Canton Stand, who watched it all the way behind Jörgensen’s goal, went ballistic.
With penalties looming, João Pedro shifted the ball to Andrey Santos, who moved it on to Neto to dispatch a low diagonal strike into the far corner, via a deflection off the Cardiff defender Joel Bagan. Relief for Maresca and Chelsea was underlined by Garnacho’s deft finish to seal the win in stoppage time. “It is probably the hope that kills you,” Barry-Murphy said afterwards. “There is a natural feeling of disappointment because I thought for a brief spell we could get the winner or go to penalties.”
