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There are no words to describe what happened at Stamford Bridge this afternoon. Chelsea suffered a shocking loss to League one side Bradford City in their FA Cup 4th round match after going 2-0 up before half time through goals from Gary Cahill and Ramires.
The Blues looked set to finish the match in what was a routine FA Cup victory over lower league opposition. But two goals down to the Premier League leaders, The Bantams pulled off one of the biggest FA Cup surprises of all time, leaving Chelsea with a 4-2 win.
Mourinho made a number of changes, with regulars Nemanja Matic, Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard rested while Didier Drogba, Loic Remy, Mohamed Salah and Andreas Christensen all started. Following their comfortable start, it was quite a scare for the home side; a scare they certainly weren't quite expecting. But more was to come.
Drogba fired wide after Mohamed Salah's cut-back in the opening exchanges and Cech produced a brilliant instinctive save to deny Andrew Davies bullet header. Remy’s effort was in vain as Ben Williams stopped his shots comfortably while Oscar fired narrowly wide from the edge of the area after a neat lay-off from Remy.
Chelsea takes lead after 20 minutes
Chelsea finally made their visitors pay in the 21st minute with the most neatest of finishes. Meeting Oscar's near post corner, Cahill pulled off a cheeky little flick with the outside of his boot – reminiscent of Blues legend Zola's strike against the Canaries - which flew past Bradford’s goalkeeper Williams near post to put the Blues ahead.
After winning the ball in midfield, Ramires doubled the Blue’s lead with a neat one-two pass from Salah at the 38th minute. Chelsea seemed to be cruising with 52 minutes left on the clock, it should have been game over.
But, after two minutes, as Chelsea failed to deal with a Morais corner, the ball fell to Jon Stead on the edge of the box who took a touch to control before firing an unstoppable left-footed strike past Cech, which made the scoreline look 2-1 at half-time.
Remy tried to restore the home side's two-goal advantage three minutes into the second half, but his half volley, following some excellent wing play from Salah, ballooned wide. But that didn't kill the momentum as Bradford gathered after Stead's strike late in the first half. At the 70th minute, Mourinho made two changes as Willian came on for Salah, while Fabregas replaced Jon Obi Mikel.
Second half debacle
Fabregas made an instant impact, placing Oscar with a brilliant flick only for the Brazil international to fire wide from a decent position. The Spaniard was at it again in the 74th minute finding Drogba with a well-flighted free-kick, which he managed to head straight at Williams. A minute later – the unthinkable happened.
A long throw found Andrew Davies, his header found Knott who somehow found Morais at the back post, who then slotted home to send the visitors into raptures and levelled the score 2-2.
Mourinho immediately brought in Eden Hazard with the view of getting the winning goal. But, Andy Halliday got onto Jon Stead’s cutback pass and in a moment, which might probably be the highlight of his career, calmly slotted past Cech from outside the box, as The Bantams took lead for the first time, making the score 3-2 in their favour.
Chelsea went for it in gung-ho fashion throwing everything at Bradford. Drogba headed wide before Zouma fired over the bar from close range. There was more drama as the fourth official signalled seven minutes of stoppage time.
Substitute Mark Yeates notched the fourth goal for Bradford for the night after a pass from Stead, to secure 4-2 victory for the League One side in emphatic fashion. Mourinho had seen enough, clapping his hands, he approached the Bradford manager before heading down the tunnel early.
A shocking result for the Blues as they lost their first game at home this season.
