Chelsea U21 beat Forest Green Rovers on penalties, advance to last 16 of the EFL Trophy

Chelsea’s development side were one of only three U21 teams to qualify for this season’s knockout stage of the EFL trophy, and they will now go one step further after last night’s match against Forest Green Rovers at The New Lawn. Our boys managed to beat the League Two leaders on penalties, after a 1-1 draw earlier on, and we’re now heading to Round 3 of the tournament.

Andy Myers named a starting lineup that possessed plenty of experience, with Lewis Baker, Tariq Uwakwe and George McEachran starting the match alongside teenage hotshots Xavier Mbuyamba and Bryan Fiabema.

Rovers took the lead in the 64th minute through Josh March, only for Uwakwe to find the equalizer a minute later. The game went into penalties after 90 minutes, and our 19-year-old goalkeeper, Lucas Bergström proved to be the hero on the night after saving the first two penalties. Chelsea meanwhile converted all of their penalties, with Lewis Baker, Lewis Hall, Xavier Mbuyamba and substitute George Nunn all stepping up to the occasion.

Chelsea will now head to the last 16 last stage of the competition, and the last time we made it this far was back in 2018-19. Let’s hope our boys can continue to advance even further into the tournament!