20/12/2006  Newcastle 0 Chelsea 1
 
Chelsea marched into the Carling Cup semi-finals as Didier Drogba once again shattered Newcastle's dreams.

Drogba - the man whose double for Marseille ended the Magpies' UEFA Cup hopes in the last four under Sir Bobby Robson - came off the bench to win a tight encounter with a superb 78th-minute strike.

His 17th goal of the season came a week after his late strike at Stamford Bridge had settled the Barclays Premiership encounter between the two sides.

It was little more than Jose Mourinho's men deserved, although Obafemi Martins was within inches of putting the home side in front, when his 27th-minute shot came back off the crossbar with keeper Henrique Hilario beaten.

Andriy Shevchenko later hit a post for the Blues, but Drogba ensured an end to their run of three games on Tyneside without a win to leave his side in the running for the season's first trophy.

Chelsea arrived on Tyneside as speculation mounted that a takeover bid for their hosts could materialise soon and, after another eventful weekend in the life of Mourinho, with bookmakers offering odds on him criticising a Magpies player for diving.

The Portuguese had admitted during the build-up that he would rest some of his key men and Newcastle must have been pleased when they saw the names of Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack and Drogba only among the substitutes.

But where Glenn Roeder was forced to play returning winger Nolberto Solano at right-back, teenager central defender Paul Huntington on the left and Turkish midfielder Emre as an auxiliary striker, Mourinho's side was still packed with expensive talent.

It was little surprise that they took the early initiative as the hugely impressive Michael Essien and Mikel John Obi took control in central midfield with former Chelsea star Scott Parker and Nicky Butt struggling to come to terms with their pace and movement.

However, for all the pressure imposed by the visitors, it was Newcastle who carved out the two clearest opportunities of the opening 45 minutes within seconds of each other.

Roeder's men had created little of any note until the 27th minute when they took the direct approach to go within inches of taking the lead.

Shay Given's hurried clearance under pressure was superbly controlled by Solano, who in turn fed the ball into the path of Martins.

The Nigerian took a quick look at the target before blasting an unstoppable shot past the stranded Hilario from 25 yards.

But after collecting five goals in his last four games, Martins' luck deserted him as the ball came back off the underside of the crossbar, bounced on the line and was hastily turned behind by Ricardo Carvalho.

From the resulting corner, Butt blasted James Milner's cross towards goal, but Hilario punched clear.

However, so fine are the margins in tight games that the woodwork spared the Magpies in injury time when Essien played Shevchenko in down the right and his shot beat Given, but clipped the far post and ran to safety.

Lampard appeared after the break as a replacement for Claude Makelele, although he passed up the chance to make an immediate impact when he thumped a long range 47th-minute drive well wide.

Steven Taylor had to get in a vital block seconds later after Arjen Robben had worked his way into the box and shot left-footed, but as they had done before half-time, Roeder's men gradually scrapped their way into the game again.

Given had to get down well to keep out Lampard's 59th-minute snapshot after good work by Essien and Robben, but Hilario sprinted from his line seconds later to block Kieron Dyer's effort after he had been played in by Emre.

Ballack arrived as a 66th-minute replacement for Mikel as Drogba warmed up on the sidelines, and the striker duly arrived as a replacement for Shevchenko seven minutes later.

But in the meantime, Lampard had dragged another shot wide and Martins had forced a save from Hilario, although from an offside position.

However, for the second time in a week, Drogba made the decisive intervention when, after Butt had been penalised for a foul on Robben - the home fans were furious at referee Chris Foy's decision, but it was the correct one - he worked a short free-kick move with Ballack to blast a curling shot past Given despite the keeper getting a hand to it.

Newcastle looked a beaten side as they attempted to drag themselves back into the game, and Ballack might have sealed the win with an 86th-minute free-kick which dropped just wide.

Lampard saw a long-range effort hit the post with Given in no-man's land deep into injury time, but the job had already been done.