My son Ben and I drove to Stamford Bridge this evening to watch AFC Bournemouth take on Chelsea in a quarter final of the EFL ‘Carabao’ Cup. We arrived late and so missed the home team’s opening goal scored by Willian. The remainder of the first half was goalless and so, after a half time refresher, we returned to our seats in the Upper Tier of the Shed End between the somewhat subdued Chelsea fans to our left and vocal travelling support to our right.
We had a superb view as the Cherries took the fight to Chelsea throughout the second half, as handily this meant almost all the action was down our end. After several wayward shots, Bournemouth closed-in on an equaliser and their efforts were rewarded by a shot from Gosling from the edge of the penalty area in the 90th minute. The joy was extremely short-lived however. As extra time was beckoning and the momentum with Eddie Howe’s men, Chelsea scored directly from the restart as a result of some creative work by Hazard and Morata, both of whom had entered the fray as substitutes because the home manager Conte had little choice but to call on his big guns to stem the tide of red and black.
So Chelsea won 2-1, despite an excellent performance away from home by the south coast team. AFCB’s next match is away at Manchester City, so we hope the anticipated goal glut doesn’t materialise.
