Chelsea travelled north to Sincil Park to play Lincoln City in the third round of the cup. The hosts coming into this game were unbeaten in their last 11 games and Chelsea winless in their last three.
Disastrous First Half
Maresca‘s men were put under pressure from the first minute as the hosts started off on the front foot. Lincoln came out flying and a minute in rattled the post through Lewis Montsma. Alarm bells rang as Chelsea struggled to get a foothold into the game or string any sort of meaningful passes together.
As things looked to have calmed down for Chelsea, Disaster struck as yet another mistake at the back gave Lincoln the perfect opportunity to take the lead. This time the hosts made no mistake and scored through Robert Street just at the stroke of Half time.
The Response
The second half started with a bang as Chelsea came out all guns blazing and scored two quick goals to nullify the Lincoln advantage. Minutes into the second half, the ball ricocheted off several Lincoln players into the path of George who's strike hit the post and flew into the net to bring Chelsea level.
Minutes later, it was double delight for the Blues as Facundo Buonanotte wriggled his way through Lincoln’s backline and slotted the ball into the net, giving Chelsea the lead just five minutes into the second half.
Lincoln kept coming at Chelsea but the Blues managed to hold on for a narrow win at the end securing their place in the next round of the cup.
To secure the result Maresca introduced the likes of Estevao, Neto and Marc Cucurella off the bench. Academy graduates like Shim Mheuka and Reggie Walsh were also introduced by Maresca deep into the game. Mheuka had a twenty minute cameo in which he impressed and managed to show his hold up skills and pace in behind a couple of times. Walsh got a mere minute which could have been more had Chelsea wrapped the game up earlier.
Maresca let his thoughts known after the Full time whistle.
Maresca when asked what he said at HT:
— CFCDaily (@CFCDaily) September 23, 2025
"It's better if I don't say." [chelseafc] pic.twitter.com/8EbPEhC490
Conclusion
Chelsea survived a huge scare and made it to the next round of the cup, But these are the type of games that test your grit and determination to dig deep so kudos to the players and the manager for doing so. Away from home against a very physical side the main objective is to get the result which we did.
Some positives being Wesley Fofana playing his first 90 minutes since Leicester away in 2024 and he looked very impressive. Chelsea will be looking to win at home against Brighton on Saturday with the likes of Sanchez, Caicedo and Joao Pedro returning to the starting 11.
