10-man Chelsea survives a huge late scare against Wolves in the League Cup

After both falling to a late defeat at the weekend, Wolverhampton Wanderers welcomed Chelsea to the Molineux on Wednesday night.

The Blues avoided a late scare to defeat the Wolves 4-3 in a dramatic fourth-round tie in the Carabao Cup to reach the quarterfinals.

Andrey Santos opened his Chelsea account five minutes into the game after Jamie Gittens picked up a loose ball from Tolu Arokodare’s layoff to set Santos up, who squeezed in a left-footed shot from the edge of the box, beating Jose Sa.

Gittens also provided the second goal after he was found in space by Facundo Buonanotte, and the Englishman beat his marker, Matt Doherty, to fire across the face of goal for Tyrique George to tap home into an empty net.

George almost got his second of the night minutes later when Gittens’ deflected shot dropped kindly to his path, but his outstretched volley flashed just wide.

In the 41st minute, Estevao got on the scoresheet, extending the visitors’ advantage after Fer Lopez was dispossessed by Santos, allowing the young Brazilian to run free and chip Jose Sa, who was off his line.

Within three minutes of the restart, Wolves reduced the deficit through Tolu, who was found by Hwang Hee-chang after he dispossessed Buonanotte in midfield, and the tall Nigerian striker finished well past Jorgensen into the bottom corner, netting his second of the competition.

The hosts threatened to come back and soon got a response through Møller Wolfe in the 73rd minute after Mosquera’s long throw was flicked on to his path for him to unleash a powerful shot at the back post, giving Wolves a lifeline.

Liam Delap was dismissed for a second yellow by referee Thomas Bramall for fouling Emmanuel Agbadou on his return from a hamstring injury.

Gittens crowned his performance with a goal to give the Blues a bit of relief in the 89th minute when his trivela effort went in off the post to restore the visitors’ two-goal advantage.

Resilient Wolves fought back again in the first minute of the six minutes of additional time as Wolfe somehow got his second of the night despite Marc Cucurella’s attempted goal-line clearance.

Chelsea return to league action on Saturday night as they take on Tottenham Hotspur at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.