The Blues will have 90 minutes at Stamford Bridge to turn the tie around, but will need to create more than we did at the Riverside Stadium in this evening’s first leg.
The closest we came to a goal was a couple of Cole Palmer efforts in the first half. He couldn’t find the target, though, putting wide after intercepting a risky defensive pass by Middlesbrough, and then hitting over from close range when the keeper spilled a long-range shot from Enzo Fernandez.
Instead we went in at the break behind, after a long ball over the top allowed the home side to take the lead through Hayden Hackney against the run of play.
The home fans roared their team on from kick-off and were nearly rewarded when Levi Colwill misjudged his header back to Djordje Petrovic from a long punt upfield by the Middlesbrough goalkeeper, with Emmanuel Latte Lath threatening to punish the early error, but his shot lacked power and Petrovic collected easily.
That early attack came at a cost for the home side, with Disasi’s attempt to block leaving Latte Lath in some pain, and his game was at an end inside the first five minutes. Middlesbrough lost a second player to injury after just 20 minutes, Alex Bangura unable to continue after going down following a fairly innocuous push in the back by Noni Madueke.
Meanwhile Cole Palmer had asked the first question of Tom Glover in the Boro goal, but his low drive from the edge of the box was too central and he was able to push it away from danger.
By then we had managed to take the sting out of the hosts’ early enthusiasm, and they carried less threat as we controlled possession in the period that followed, but with the exception of a couple of dangerous corners we didn’t manage to threaten either.
Behind at the break
As we approached half-time, the closest we had come to opening the scoring was when Palmer rolled a shot just wide of the right-hand post after intercepting an ill-judged Middlesbrough pass across their back line in a dangerous area.
Instead, Middlesbrough’s long balls over the top eventually paid off to give them the lead on the counter. Isaiah Jones had just enough pace to keep the ball in play at the byline and Colwill couldn’t prevent the low pass towards the six-yard box, where Hayden Hackney turned in from close range.
We tried to hit back, with Moises Caicedo firing just wide from range. Palmer couldn’t get over the rebound when the keeper spilled Enzo’s curling effort, and then Glover saved a second effort from our No10 in first-half stoppage time, but it was 1-0 to the hosts after 45 minutes.
No way through
We tried to push back in the second half and it wasn’t long before we forced the first save from Glover in the Middlesbrough goal, but he was able to hold Madueke’s looping header from Sterling’s curling cross.
With their lead, Boro were happy to sit deep and attempt to soak up the pressure, though, and we were finding it hard to carve out further openings. That was despite the game being played almost exclusively deep inside the Middlesbrough half in the final half-an-hour of the match.
Gallagher tried to swivel under pressure when collecting Malo Gusto’s ball into the box, but he was off balance and couldn’t get his effort on target. Mauricio Pochettino responded by turning to his substitutes, with Armando Broja and Mykhailo Mudryk both called into action.
We were increasing the pressure on the home side gradually as we approached 15 minutes remaining, and Raheem Sterling did well to create space in the box for himself, but his curling shot across goal went wide of the far post.
Despite a couple of ‘nearly’ moments, we couldn’t create the opening we needed to head back to London on level terms though.
What it means
It’s far from over after 90 of the 180 minutes in this two-legged semi-final, but Chelsea have work to do when we go into the second match at Stamford Bridge in fortnight trailing by a single goal.
What is next
We are back in Premier League action on Saturday 13 January, with a home derby against Fulham at 12.30pm, before a free week for our top-flight winter break.
The teams
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Petrovic; Gusto (Gilchrist 90), Disasi, Thiago Silva, Colwill; Caicedo, Enzo (Mudryk 63); Madueke (Broja 63), Gallagher (c), Sterling; Palmer
Substitutes: Bergstrom, Bettinelli, Williams, Golding, Washington
Booked: Colwill 30
Middlesbrough (3-4-3): Glover; Van den Berg, Fry, Engel; I. Jones, Howson (c), Barlaser, Bangura (Clarke 20); Crooks, Latte Lath (Coburn 5), Hackney
Substitutes: J. Jones, Clarke, Gilbert, O’Brien, Kavanagh, McCabe, Bridge, Bilongo
Scorer: Hackney 37
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