KAORU MITOMA fired home after poor Chelsea defending as Brighton fought from a goal down to lead beat Chelsea in the FA Cup!
Bart Verbruggen’s HOWLER gave Chelsea the lead in their FA Cup fourth round clash, before Giorginio Rutter equalised within 10 minutes.
Cole Palmer’s speculative cross back into the box saw Verbruggen get it all wrong and concede to put Chelsea into the lead, then Georginio turned in a super header to equalise.
A mix-up at the back – with Chelsea failing to clear – saw the ball drop to Mitoma, with the Japan international firing the Seagulls into the lead.
- Kick-off: 8pm
- Brighton XI: Verburggen, Lamptey, Dunk, Georginio, Minteh, Welbeck, Baleba, Mitoma, Van Hecke, Veltman, Hinshelwood.
- Chelsea XI: Sanchex, Gusto, Tosin, Chalobah, Cucurella, Caicedo, Dewsbury-Hall, Neto, Palmer, Sancho, Nkunku.
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Tomorrow’s ties
And three more ties to come tomorrow!
Tomorrow’s fixtures
- Blackburn vs Wolves – 12.30pm
- Plymouth vs Liverpool – 3pm
- Aston Villa vs Tottenham – 5.35pm
Full time from Isabelle Barker at the Amex Stadium
Enzo Maresca’s magic seems to be wearing off at Chelsea and the honeymoon period is over.
The club’s demise has been brutal, with now only three wins from ten games in all competitions.
Fans are making their views loud and clear, with hordes of the 7,000 Chelsea supporters who travelled down already out the exit doors before this match finished.
There is only the Europa Conference League and top four to play for this season and Maresca needs to quickly find answers to the doubts surrounding his leadership and tactics.
It really looked as though he ran out of ideas at the Amex. There was zero creativity or personality to this performance from the Blues.
FA cup results
The FA Cup fourth round scores from this exciting, long Saturday of action.
- Leeds 0-2 Millwall
- Leyton Orient 1-2 Man City
- Coventry City 1-4 Ipswich Town
- Everton 0-2 Bournemouth
- Preston 0-0 Wycombe (Preston win on pens)
- Southampton 0-1 Burnley
- Stoke City 3-3 Cardiff City (Cardiff win on pens)
- Wigan Athletic 1-2 Fulham
- Birmingham 2-3 Newcastle
- Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
FULL TIME!
Chelsea are KNOCKED OUT of the FA Cup! Brighton are into the fifth round having come from behind.
Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
90+2 – Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
Brighton deal with it and clear it up to halfway.
90+1 – Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
Close! Madueke is played in down the right and manages to get the ball across goal.
A great last-ditch block stops the ball getting in and the clearance is poor to the edge of the box but the strike is well saved by Verbruggen before a corner is awarded.
90 – Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
Four minutes of added time for Brighton to hold on.
88 – Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
Brighton change as they attempt to run the clock down in the closing stages.
- OFF: Welbeck
- ON: O’Riley
87 – Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
Nearly a clincher for Brighton after some clever flicks and tricks to get up the park.
The ball is flicked onto Joao Pedro who tries to slide Mitoma in but it’s just cut out.
84 – Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
First chance for George to see some of the ball.
It’s switched out to him on the left and he drives in towards goal, inside the box before working it onto his left foot and blazing over the bar from 10 yards at an angle.
81 – Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
Chelsea still struggling to create much of note but you can sense the anxiety around the ground.
Chelsea with 10 minutes to take this to extra time.
78 – Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
Claims for a Brighton penalty but waved away by the referee.
Gusto doesn’t deal with a bouncing ball and is well beaten to it by Joao Pedro before it looks like the Seagulls man is dragged to the floor.
Goal kick Chelsea.
75 – Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
Double changes for both sides.
Brighton
- OFF: Baleba & Rutter
- ON: Ayari & Joao Pedro
Chelsea
- OFF: Neto & Sancho
- ON: Madueke & George
74 – Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
Cucurella flicks a clever pass on and into the box where Palmer runs onto it.
On the stretch and 14 yards out, he tries to help the ball on towards the target but instead only misses the corner flag by a few yards. Another waste.
72 – Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
Neto drives down the outside this time and fires a low ball into the box with his weaker right foot.
Sancho collects it inside the area but takes too much touches and Brighton eventually crowd him out and Verbruggen comes off his line to claim.
From Isabelle Barker at the Amex Stadium
Kaoru Mitoma is looking like a new man in his first home game since Brighton rejected two megabucks offers from Saudi side Al Nassr to sign him in the transfer window.
All the speculation seemed to get to Mitoma’s head, with him suffering a stinker of a performance in the 7-0 loss to Nottingham Forest last time out, where he was hooked off at half-time.
You can’t help feeling he will be on the move soon though. He has expressed a desire to play at a “high level” so Brighton will need to make it into Europe once again or bring home silverware this season.
70 – Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
Nothing comes of the set piece.
69 – Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
Caicedo chops down Lamptey as Brighton attack down their left hand side.
Easy yellow card for the referee that one and a decent free kick for the Seagulls from a free kick on the left.
68 – Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
Brighton now make their second change of the night.
- OFF: Hinshelwood
- ON: Gomez
64 – Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
It was all a bit scrappy before the goal for Brighton but they won’t care too much as the finish was class.
Chelsea up the other end have a chance with Neto on the right but his cross is far too deep, missing everyone and drifting harmlessly behind.
GOAL DETAIL: Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
There’s a bit of pinball on the edge of the Chelsea box.
The loose ball is picked up and a clever bouncing pass is knocked to Mitoma in space on the left and he places a lofted finish with the outside of his right foot beyond Sanchez.
Cucurella is the one tracking back to try and clear off the line but he can’t reach it.
A great response after losing that early, silly goal from Brighton!
58 – Brighton 2-1 Chelsea
Enzo Maresca goes to his bench immediately after the goal.
- OFF: Dewsbury-Hall
- ON: Fernandez
57 – GOAL! BRIGHTON 2-1 Chelsea
Terrific finish from KAORU MITOMA and Brighton hit the front!
56 – Brighton 1-1 Chelsea
Better from Brighton on the counter!
Rutter drives 30 yards through the middle of the park before finding Mitoma out on the left. He carries on the drive up the pitch before trying to pick out a team-mate at the back post but there’s just too much on it!
54 – Brighton 1-1 Chelsea
Again, why are they doing this?
Neto is played in down the right, 1v1 with Lamptey and he cuts back.
Three passes later, it’s back with Tosin midway inside Brighton’s half.
Possession for possession’s sake!
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
