Chelsea eased the pressure on Rafael Benitez and sealed their place in the League Cup semi-finals thanks to an emphatic 5-1 victory over old rivals Leeds at Elland Road on Wednesday.
Leeds, currently mid-table in the Championship, sensed a quarter-final shock when they took a 38th-minute lead thanks to a 15th goal of the season from Argentinian striker Luciano Becchio, who slid the ball home from 12 yards as he met a Jerome Thomas cross to round-off a length of the field move.
But defender Tom Lees missed a great chance to double the advantage in first-half stoppage-time, heading over from an El Hadji-Diouf cross as the Yorkshire club attempted to emulate their neighbours Bradford City, who booked their semi-final place with a stunning upset over Arsenal.
Chelsea refused to go the same way as their Premier League rivals, moving through the gears to score five second-half goals to make it through to the last four in January in some style.
“The team was quite good in the first half and the reaction of the team in the second half was fantastic after coming back from Japan with jet lag and changing some players,” interim manager Benitez said.
“The reaction was amazing. We were looking for character and we talked about it at half-time.”
Leeds boss Neil Warnock added: “If Tom Lees’ header had gone in when the score was 1-0 it would have been a different game.