Derby County have succumbed to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Chelsea in this evening's League Cup quarter-final at the iPro Stadium.
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The visitors made a confident start to the game, taking control of the ball early on and dominating possession, but endured a nervy moment when Andre Schurrle was booked in the third minute following a cynical foul on Johnny Russell.
Just a few minutes later, the Rams had a chance to open the scoring when Will Hughes released Craig Forsyth, but the left-back smashed his cross into the stands.
The game was fairly even when Chelsea opened the scoring in the 23rd minute, Richard Keogh's mistake pounced upon by Cesc Fabregas, who played it into Eden Hazard's run. The Belgian then cut inside Jake Buxton and fired home to put the Blues into the lead.
By the half-hour mark, Jose Mourinho's charges were in full control of proceedings, with Filipe Luis forcing a save from Lee Grant and Hazard once again coming close.
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However, Steve McClaren's charges picked themselves up by the latter stages of the half, putting up a fight and enjoying a good spell of possession, although they were unable to penetrate the Chelsea backline.
In first-half injury time, Blues defender Kurt Zouma was accidentally hit by Petr Cech as the goalkeeper jumped to clear a ball into the box, which led to a lengthy stoppage as the young Frenchman had to be stretchered off.
Chelsea began the second 45 minutes quite calmly, and this complacency nearly cost them as John Terry allowed Russell to beat him on the right flank, the Derby man picking out Hughes in the box who forced a smart save from Cech.
The move sparked the iPro crowd into life, but it also reinvigorated the visitors, who stepped it up a gear and duly doubled their lead just before the hour, as Luis curled a free kick from 25 yards out into the top corner of the Derby net.
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However, the home side struck back in the 71st minute when Russell pounced on a Branislav Ivanovic error and fed the ball to Craig Bryson on the edge of the box, the 28-year-old subsequently tucking the ball into the bottom corner past Cech.
Derby then found themselves down to 10 men when Buxton was dismissed for stepping across Loic Remy in the 78th minute, and Chelsea made their extra man count when Andre Schurrle pounced on a rebounded effort to slot into the net and kill the game off.
Giuseppe Labellarte
