Luton Town 2-3 Chelsea, FA Cup: Post-match reaction, ratings

Attentions and focus was on anything other than this game, but this game still had to be played and Luton Town certainly weren’t going to go away kindly just because the Chelsea world as we’ve known it for the last two decades is about to drastically change.

And sure enough, the home side set about their Magic of the Cup moment by taking an early lead from a set piece, inside of two minutes. Chelsea were able to quickly settle down however, despite the cobbled-together lineup, and after letting a couple chances go begging, equalized through Saul with his first goal for the club.

It looked like the floodgates might open at that point, with Saul himself coming close again, in addition to several other excellent chances, but Luton’s substitute goalkeeper stood on his head and kept it at 1-1.

Then, completely against the run of play, Luton had yet another Magic of the Cup moment, taking advantage of a misplayed offside trap to run behind and slot into the back of the net through Chelsea fan Harry Cornick.

It was more of the same after the break, before Tuchel made a couple substitutions and we were able to equalize for the second time through Werner not long after. And it didn’t take long for us to then take the lead for the first time, with Werner turning provider this time and Lukaku finishing things off.

The home side had run out of Magic by then, and we’d see things out with ease.

To the quarterfinals we go!

Carefree.

• Lineup published as a 4-3-3, but it was a 3-4-3 with Loftus-Cheek the most central “defender” between Sarr and Rüdiger, Kenedy and Hudson-Odoi as wing-backs, Saúl and Jorginho central, and Werner, Lukaku, Mount up front
• Pulisic, Vale subbing on as wing-backs, James slotting in at the back with Rüdiger moving central and RLC stepping into midfield
• The draw for the quarterfinals is tomorrow (Thursday)
• Next up: Burnley away on Saturday in something called the Premier League — through at the rate we’re going, we’ll be moving to the Moon by then
• KTBFFH

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