TEAM NEWS: " CARDIFF CITY v CHELSEA " MATCH THREAD

CARDIFF CITY v CHELSEA
Tuesday 16th December, 8pm
Carabao Cup Quarter Final
Cardiff City Stadium 


Ronan Kpakio suspended

Omari Kellyman ineligible to play



BBM

“Generally we’ve got nothing to worry about, a few bumps and bruises.”




Injury update:

Osho out injured toe

Tanner back training and now progressing well

Rubin Colwill out till about April

Eli King out for the season








Tickets sold out

Live on Sky Sports Main Event

inside_the_stadium.png

About Chelsea

Chelsea are having a decent but inconsistent season.

They are currently 4th in the Premier League at time of writing.

They also stand in 13th place in the Champions League, which is in the qualification spots for the play-off round.

They have beaten Lincoln and Wolves to get to this quarter final.

Club Connections

The biggest relevent link is between the two managers.

BBM and Maresca worked together at Manchester City and have maintained a close relationship.

The Opposition's Manager

Enzo Maresca has been Chelsea manager since June 2024.

Last season he led them to a fourth placed finish. He also won the Conference League and the Club World Cup.

Before that, he had spells as manager at Parma and Leicester. He also coached at Manchester City.

While at Leicester, he won the Championship title.

Opposition Dangerous Players

Chelsea will probably make plenty of changes for this game, but in terms of their squad - there are obviously quality players.

Cole Palmer, Moises Caicedo, Estevao and Enzo Fernandez to name just four.

Referee

Tony Harrington will take charge of this game. He has refereed mostly in the Premier League this season, showing 31 yellow cards in ten games (3.1 per game) and two red cards.

Last season, he showed 115 yellows in 27 games (4.2 per game) and five red cards.

He has been a Select Group 1 referee since 2021, which is the highest category of referee in the PGMOL with 19 referees in that category.

Head To Head - Last Five Meetings

We have lost each of our last five games against Chelsea.

The last of these was a 2-1 defeat in the Premier League at CCS in 2019 - a game where Chelsea had a goal that was clearly offside given.

We haven't beaten Chelsea since 1986.

Team News - Predicted Line-Ups

Cardiff City are likely to play their first team for a game of this magnitude. A strong team was played in the last round.

Chelsea are likely to play some fringe players.

Last Game

We won 4-3 at home to Doncaster in the league on Saturday. We beat Wrexham in the last round.

Chelsea won 2-0 at home to Everton in the league on Saturday. They beat Wolves in the last round.

Match Odds

Cardiff City - 9/1
Chelsea - 1/5
Draw - 6/1

Predictions

Post your predictions below 

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I'm a Bluebird through and through this is a free hit for us let's give it 100% and who knows BELIEVE BLUBIRDS WE YDO THIS!!!

Ronan Kpakio suspended

Omari Kellyman ineligible to play



BBM

“Generally we’ve got nothing to worry about, a few bumps and bruises.”


Injury update:

Osho out injured toe

Tanner back training and now progressing well

Rubin Colwill out till about April

Eli King out for the season

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

I fully expect us to be on a 3 or 4 nil loss in this game And that will not concern me if we continue play in the fashion we have . We are use to having the majority of the ball in every game we have played and this game we will not and that will be the issue. Our defence is not the strongest and I just can’t see us doing much against a top 6 premier team.

It is a free hit for us and I will just enjoy the game and support the lads

I fully expect us to be on a 3 or 4 nil loss in this game And that will not concern me if we continue play in the fashion we have . We are use to having the majority of the ball in every game we have played and this game we will not and that will be the issue. Our defence is not the strongest and I just can’t see us doing much against a top 6 premier team.

It is a free hit for us and I will just enjoy the game and support the lads

I totally agree with this. We are a team that have the ball a lot so going into a game where we almost certainly won't against much better opposition, means it will be tough.

Whatever team Chelsea put out, they will have far much too much quality for us obviously.

Treating it as a bonus game, but a chance for our players to test themselves against a top four Premier League team.

I didn't put the usual predicted line-ups in the main Match Thread post. I think Chelsea will make plenty of changes so it was difficult for me to predict how they'll line-up.

But for what it's worth, this is how FlashScore are predicting each team to line up:

Cardiff City

Trott
Ng Fish Chambers Bagan
Wintle Robertson
Ashford Davies Willock
Salech


Chelsea

Jorgensen
Acheampong Tosin Badiashile Hato
Caicedo Santos
Estevao Buonanotte Gittens
Guiu

Enzo Maresca raised eyebrows with his confession following Saturday’s win over Everton that the previous 48 hours had been the hardest of his Chelsea career to date.

The Blues returned to winning ways with a 2-0 home victory against Everton that saw them bounce back from domestic and European defeats.

Despite the victory, Maresca took the opportunity to express his unhappiness at a lack of support.

Maresca didn’t specify who he was referring to, but stressed his ire wasn’t directed at the fans.

‘The last 48 hours has been the worst since I joined the club because many people didn’t support me and the team,’ Maresca said.

Asked if he meant internally at Chelsea, he replied: ‘In general. In general.’

According to talkSPORT, Maresca’s stunning claim was not an off the cuff remark that came at the end of a difficult week, but his dissatisfaction had been building for some time.

I fully expect us to be on a 3 or 4 nil loss in this game And that will not concern me if we continue play in the fashion we have . We are use to having the majority of the ball in every game we have played and this game we will not and that will be the issue. Our defence is not the strongest and I just can’t see us doing much against a top 6 premier team.

It is a free hit for us and I will just enjoy the game and support the lads

Osho out, BBM against his old mate, you never know!

It would have been interesting to see Ruben in this game, never mind, let's see how it goes and enjoy it.

Good luck 2moro,

I fully expect us to be on a 3 or 4 nil loss in this game And that will not concern me if we continue play in the fashion we have . We are use to having the majority of the ball in every game we have played and this game we will not and that will be the issue. Our defence is not the strongest and I just can’t see us doing much against a top 6 premier team.

It is a free hit for us and I will just enjoy the game and support the lads

Osho out, BBM against his old mate, you never know!

It would have been interesting to see Ruben in this game, never mind, let's see how it goes and enjoy it.

No you never know But I don’t see us being good enough However I am looking forward to the game As a supporter a win would be amazing Giving them a really good game would be excellent Losing would not concern me as I am very happy with this very young team this season and they will only benefit from the game whatever happens

I'd love a win for a bit of karma following the offside ruling a few years ago but I've told my grandsons that I think we will be 2 down in first twenty minutes. Their threat even with a weekend side is just too good and our defence and midfield will be over run at this level.

We last beat Chelsea in 1986 in the League Cup. Nicky Platnauer if I recall.

Enzo Maresca has ruled Cole Palmer out of Tuesday's trip to Cardiff as he set his sights on winning the Carabao Cup with Chelsea.

Palmer scored Chelsea’s opening goal against Everton on Saturday in the Premier League, before being substituted before the hour mark, but he will be rested against the League One leaders in Tuesday’s quarter-final.

It comes as Chelsea continue to carefully manage Palmer’s minutes, following the England international’s staggered return from his recurring groin injury, which was further complicated last month when he suffered a freak toe injury while at his home.

Maresca said on Monday that Palmer is “not available to play two games in three days”, with the Chelsea head coach set to ring the changes and give game time to some of his lesser-used squad players, potentially including attacking midfielder Facundo Buonanotte, who is on loan from Brighton.

Asked whether Palmer would feature at the Cardiff City Stadium, Maresca said: “I already said many times, Cole is one of the players that deserves to be protected.

“He is not available to play two games in three days.”

Asked about potentially winning the Carabao Cup, Maresca said: “It's something that we want to achieve for the fans.

If by some miracle we hold them to a draw after 90 mins, is it straight to penalties or do we get extra time?

If by some miracle we hold them to a draw after 90 mins, is it straight to penalties or do we get extra time?

Straight to penalties Mike, extra time doesn't come in until the second legs of the semi finals.

Loud and proud tonight lads get behind the team !!!!!!

If by some miracle we hold them to a draw after 90 mins, is it straight to penalties or do we get extra time?

Straight to penalties Mike, extra time doesn't come in until the second legs of the semi finals.

Cheers Ned

Chelsea's 2nd string team from the weekends game so 11 changes for them shows how strong they are in squad depth really but we got more of a chance I hope although i would have liked to have seen salech start had him in my bet as first goal scorer

Just me in here tonight?

We’ve started well here. Showing no fear

We keep giving them the ball back with all the faffing around by the keeper & defence.

Davies should have at least hit the target there.

Davies and Bagan started well and working hard.
But we dont half miss Salech upfront!! Robinson has hardly touched the ball.

Chambers joins Davies in the refs book.

Done pretty well so far, especially Bagen Lawler and Davies. A very good effort.
But ….Id make 2 changes. I pray Salech comes on 1/2 time. Robinson had 3 or 4 touches and lost the ball most times. Also challenges won = 0 and tackles won (dont make laugh.). And in mdfield I always think Robertson insteas of Turnbull is the best option.

(Also annoyed that the Ref booked 2 City players for nexy to nothing!!)

Robinson has been worse than useless so far & needs some help up front. They are there for the taking.

I'm happy with that half.

We've played our normal game and not adjusted because of higher opposition.

Whatever happens from here, proud that we've stuck to the style.

So proud tonight - admittedly against 2nd string Chelsea but we are playing some nice stuff


Rob and Ashford poor tho

Chelsea bring on a couple of their big guns for the second half.

First sign of internet all night!

Well pleased with our efforts in the first half and already done us proud!

Garnacho on now, so going to get lively; but we can do this!

LATEST SCORE: CARDIFF CITY 0 - 0 CHELSALEA (48 mins)

And there we go, 0-1 to Chelsea after Lawlor gifts them the ball.