Carlo Ancelotti defends cup team selection

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<br clear="all"> Chelsea bossr Carlo Ancelotti insistedhe made the right decision to rest key players after their defeat onpenalties at Blackburn in the Carling Cup.

Ancelotti selecteda young side and the match finished 3-3 after extra-time before18-year-old Gael Kakuta missed his spot kick in the quarter-final tie.

"This is good for our season," said Ancelotti, whose side head the league. "I wanted to see our young players.

"I think they did a good job. It was a good opportunity to gain experience."

Only Joe Cole, Salomon Kalou and Jon Obi Mikel remained from the team that defeated Arsenal on Sunday.

Chelsea trailed 1-0 at the break after a disappointing first-halfperformance, prompting Ancelotti to make a triple substitution at therestart with Kakuta, Jeffrey Bruma and Didier Drogba coming on.

Ancelotti'sdecision was almost immediately vindicated when Drogba equalised withhis first touch, though Chelsea had to play the remainder of the gamewith 10 men after Kalou limped off with 20 minutes of normal time left.

"We are disappointed but I think that we did a very good jobwith 10 versus 11 - we played with spirit, with heart," addedAncelotti.

"I took a risk with three players coming on athalf-time. It was a new line-up for us and sometimes it doesn't work,but in second half it was better.

"It was impossible for Kalou to come back on - he was injured. Weneed to assess him on Thursday but we hope he will recover quickly."

Roversboss Sam Allardyce has almost recovered following heart surgery and thematch against Chelsea was Neil McDonald's last in temporary charge.

"It will be good to have Sam back - he's such an influence here," said McDonald

"I'm delighted to beat Chelsea and we deserved it, but Sam is the manager."

Itlooked as though the home team would seal victory in extra-time afterBenni McCarthy had scored a penalty to make it 3-2, but Paulo Ferreirastruck deep into injury-time to take the match to penalties.

"It didn't deserve to got to penalties, we had the chances to win it before then," added McDonald.

"ButPaul Robinson has made two fantastic saves in the shoot-out and we'rethrough, it's great. We have come on strong and deserved to comethrough.

"When they levelled for 3-3 you wonder if it's notgoing to be your day but the players dusted themselves off and cameback to win it in the shoot-out."

Rovers will now meet Aston Villa in the two-legged semi-final.

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Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8392162.stm

[northernblue 2]

In the end we were a penalty shoot out away from a semi-final. Its disappointing to lose but everyone knows the Carling Cup is low on our prority list. Well done to Blackburn, they worked hard and probably deserved it.

[Laylabelle 9,382]

He picked a team that he thought was strong enough,made decent enough changes just unlucky Kalou had to come off.

And like said Blackburn deserved to go through..and we're shit at pens.But we came back from behind twice so not all bad

[flamiejamie 0]

You can't get mad at his changes. He pulls three players at the half and IMMEDIATELY after we score two quick goals! It was insane, and when I heard we scored so fast I attributed that to the manager. Unlucky about Kalou, and I don't feel too bothered about losing. Like you guys said, Blackburn deserve it... That'd be great if they could go on to win it over the mancs.

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Pulling 3 players was kinda a mistake... I mean Joe Cole was playing well, right? o.o

Anyway, the backline was a crazy selection wasn't it?!

Belleti, Fereirra, Ivanovic, Zhrikov

I don't get why Belleti gets picked for RB while Feirrea plays as a DC...

And looking at the penalties, it looked as if Hilario did not train on Penalties. ):