It was another fascinating night in the Worthington Cup as Leeds United and Aston Villa lost home ties to Chelsea and Sheffield Wednesday respectively but Blackburn Rovers progress with victory over Manchester City.
Two-goals from Eidur Gudjohnsen secured Chelsea's place in the fifth round and went someway towards easing the pressure on under-fire boss Claudio Ranieri. Gudjohnsen scored in the 59th and 80th minutes to take his tally to seven for the season and end Leeds' proud 19-game unbeaten record at Elland Road. It was one of Leeds' worst performances of the season so far, and they look like they could really do with the services of new signing Robbie Fowler as they failed to create any real chance of note other than a few deadball specials from Ian Harte.
In an uninspiring first-half, the only real highlight came on the stroke of half-time when Republic of Ireland striker Robbie Keane should have been awarded a penalty when he was brought down by the trailing leg of Chelsea's French defender William Gallas. However, referee Jeff Winter, who had sent off Danny Mills and Lee Bowyer in Leeds' 2-1 win at Arsenal in August, waved away all appeals for a penalty.
In the second-half, Chelsea finally broke the deadlock and did so on both occasions with a Leeds player out injured on the sidelines. Gudjohnsen's first goal, a right-foot shot that deflected in off of Nigel Martyn's left-hand post, arrived at a point when Dominic Matteo was at the touchline waiting for treatment. He was later substituted and Eirik Bakke soon followed as he too succumbed to injury. Replacement Stephen McPhail just back from a long-term Achilles injury, was lying in agony 10 yards outside the Chelsea area when Gudjohnsen struck with his second, an excellent 15-yard drive. To make matters worse for manager David O'Leary, McPhail was stretchered off with his legs strapped together.
Efan Ekoku's third goal in this season's Worthington Cup campaign was enough to see Sheffield Wednesday through against Aston Villa at Villa Park. Ekoku only returned to first-team action last Saturday after a nine-week lay-off with a knee injury and started tonight's game on the bench before being drafted into action in place of Alan Quinn after 27 minutes. The Nigerian international fired the visitors into the lead five minutes before the break.
Villa were momentarily down to 10 men after Mustapha Hadji limped off with a knee injury and Gerald Sibon and Simon Donnelly combined to set up Ekoku, who cooly planted the ball past Peter Schmeichel. Villa are Wednesday's second Premiership scalp in this competition - they previously triumphed over Sunderland - and Terry Yorath's men looked more than a match for their high-flying opponents, despite their own precarious position, sixth from bottom in the First Division.
However, fellow First Division club Manchester City will not join Wednesday in the last eight of the competition after they were beaten 2-0 by Blackburn despite a spirited performance. Kevin Keegan's men made it difficult for themselves when new midfielder Christian Negouai was sent-off after just 25 minutes but although the decision may have ruined the game as a spectacle, it did nothing to ruin City's heart and determination. Goals in the dying minutes of each half from Blackburn gave the Premiership club some breathing space but City never gave up hope.
The first goal arrived a minute before the interval, when Nils-Eric Johansson fired a low drive into the far corner of the net. Despite some hard work from the visitors, they couldn't manage an equaliser and three minutes into added time Rovers got their second through Damien Johnson but it was not a goal they truly deserved.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
