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Derby County found their way to the fourth round of the Carabao Cup in surprise fashion as they had to beat Manchester United in the third round of the competition.
After a 2-2 draw with Jose Mourinho’s side, the Rams won the game on penalties, and will now face Chelsea in the fourth round on Wednesday night.
Speaking in a press briefing ahead of the game, Chelsea assistant manager Gianfranco Zola has revealed that Derby’s game against Manchester United will be studied so the Blues won’t suffer an upset at the Bridge.
Zola said: “We are going to study them. We know their strengths and we are going to be working on that. We certainly respect their value because we know they are a very good team.
“They have a lot of good players – for example Mason Mount who belongs to Chelsea, also [Tom] Lawrence, [Harry] Wilson, [David] Nugent. We know they have a lot of quality up front. We will have to play the game with a lot of respect for them, otherwise there will be trouble.”
Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri is taking this competition serious and he will be looking to win his first ever trophy as a manager – a feat he didn’t achieve at Napoli despite their form and dominant style of play.