(Blackburn won 4-3 on penalties)

Blackburn won a fantastically dramatic Carling Cup quarter-final on penalties against a Chelsea side missing some, though not all, big names.

More significantly, Chelsea were missing an eleventh player when Salomon Kalou picked up an injury after boss Carlo Ancelotti made three half-time substitutions.

But there were countless talking points on a remarkable night which had almost everything…including a German international having a crucial penalty saved by an English international goalkeeper in the shoot-out.

Rovers’ villain-turned-hero was young striker Junior Hoilett. He wasted two glorious opportunities to seal victory in extra-time, before Chelsea’s Paulo Ferreira grabbed a last-seconds’ equaliser. But he found infinitely more composure to convert what became the winning penalty when Chelsea’s Gael Kakuta had his kick saved by Rovers’ keeper Paul Robinson.

The hosts were ahead on nine minute, Croatian striker Nikola Kalinic side-footing home Pascal Chimbonda’s cross from close range.

Ancelotti made all his tactical adjustments at the interval. And, for nine minutes, this seemed like a masterstroke.

Three minutes into the second half, Didier Drogba, who was one of the subs, headed home Florent Malouda’s cross from the left. And six minutes later, Yuri Zhirkov’s slide-rule pass allowed Salomon Kalou to sprint clear of the defence and slot the ball home.

Blackburn levelled matters twelve minutes later; Brett Emerton’s deflected cross deceiving an out-of-position Henrique Hilario in the Chelsea goal.

And further trouble arrived when Kalou pulled up injured, leaving the Blues down to ten men for the remainder of the long night.

The ten men held out for extra-time but went 3-2 behind on 92 minutes, Benni McCarthy scoring from the spot after Zhirkov upended Hoilett in the box.

And Hoilett’s late profligacy proved temporarily costly when Robinson mispunched Malouda’s far-post free-kick and Ferreira netted from a tight angle.

Robinson gave Rovers an early shoot-out advantage when he pushed Michael Ballack’s spot-kick onto his left-hand post.

But Kalinic’s poor penalty was gleefully pounced upon by Hilario, before Hoilett smashed his kick high into the net, and Robinson stood up to parry Kakuta’s gun-barrel straight penalty, sending Rovers into a semi-final meeting with Aston Villa.