Drogba quick to settle matters

League Cup Quarter-final Newcastle Utd ... 0 Chelsea ... 1 Drogba 79Shortly after Chelsea revealed their teamsheet for last night's match a Newcastle wag suggested the club should build a moat around the visitors' bench. There sat Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack, as well as Ashley Cole, and the dread at St James' Park was that at some stage one, two or three of them would be called on by Jose Mourinho.

After a goalless first half on came Lampard, Ballack and finally Drogba and the Chelsea striker needed only six minutes on the turf to score the goal that takes Chelsea into the semi-finals. It was Drogba's 17th strike of a fantastic season.

It was a tight game otherwise but once Nicky Butt upended Arjen Robben on the Dutchman's one true thrust of the evening, Drogba walked over to the edge of the Newcastle penalty area and spotted a hole in the corner diagonally opposite. The charging Scott Parker and Shay Given stood in the way but Drogba's free-kick was bent around them at speed and, though Given managed a glove, the ball rippled the back of the net.

Lampard then struck the woodwork but Drogba, just as he had at Stamford Bridge in the league encounter seven days' earlier, had come on as a substitute to make the difference. Newcastle were aggrieved at that and at the seemingly legitimate argument that Obafemi Martins' first-half shot crossed the line.

It was the second meeting of the two clubs in a week - Chelsea having won 1-0 in the Premiership - and the ninth cup tie between them in 14 years. They had previously met in this competition two years ago last month, when Mourinho summoned Robben and Eidur Gudjohnsen from the bench to win 2-0 in extra-time.

Here Mourinho had a bench Glenn Roeder said constituted "the best five-a-side team in the world" - Magnus Hedman, Ashley Cole, Lampard, Ballack and Drogba. Parker was the other common denominator. Parker got a rare outing for Mourinho in 2004 and is now Newcastle's captain. He returned last night having missed the last five Newcastle matches through injury and was just a yard short of the rebound from Martins' stunning 27th-minute shot that crashed down off Hilario's crossbar and onto, or over, the line.

The game had been brisk but this was the night's first venom. Nolberto Solano, influential at right-back, supplied the pass to Martins for that shot, and from the subsequent corner Hilario was forced into an unconvincing punch from a volley by Butt.

St James' Park was roused but not by a sense of injustice. The events had been too quick for the naked eye. Previously the ground had been slightly anxious as Newcastle's inexperienced defence wobbled on occasion when Salomon Kalou cut in from the right or Michael Essien burst through the middle.

There were moments in the first half where Chelsea's willingness to attack gave them a man over, but each time he went without the ball. Andriy Shevchenko was having another of those games where he was giving plenty in effort but was failing at the last. But then seconds before the half-time whistle blew, Essien again surged and from the right delivered a centre that Shevchenko met with a shot across Given and onto the far post. Perhaps feeling they were on the verge of some momentum - or more likely fearful of extra-time - Mourinho sent on Lampard for Claude Makelele at the interval. Lampard's first involvement was to drag a shot badly wide.

His next effort, on 59 minutes, was straight at Given but Chelsea had at least worked the space for Lampard's angled drive. Newcastle were showing discipline to deny the visitors room with Roeder's game plan now based on counter-attack.

Immediately after that Lampard shot Newcastle broke away in a manner that will have pleased Roeder. Emre Belozoglu slid Kieron Dyer behind the Chelsea back four and Dyer, hitherto quiet, reached the ball just before Hilario. The goalkeeper did well to smother the attempted chip.

There followed another 15 minutes of mainly midfield sparring before Mourinho, having just introduced Ballack, then reached for Drogba. Off went Shevchenko, again unsatisfied, and five minutes later Drogba struck.

NEWCASTLE: Given; Solano, Taylor, Rammage, Huntington; Butt, Parker; Dyer, Emre, Milner (Sibierski 85), Martins. Subs not used: Srnicek, Luque, Rossi, Edgar. Booked: Emre (74), Solano (84).

CHELSEA: Hilario; Ferreira, Boulahrouz, Carvalho, Bridge; Essien, Makelele (Lampard h-t), Mikel (Ballack 65); Kalou, Shevchenko (Drogba 72), Robben. Subs not used: Hedman, cole. Goal: Drogba (77). Booked: Ferreira (24), Boulahrouz (53)

Referee: C Foy (Merseyside).