Chelsea ignore Terry absence to reach last eight

FA Cup holders Chelsea shrugged off the absence of captain John Terry to cruise into the quarter-finals with a 4-1 win over Championship side Cardiff in the fifth round on Saturday.

With Terry granted time off to fly to Dubai to be with his wife as he deals with allegations of an affair, Ashley Cole sidelined after ankle surgery and Petr Cech and Nicolas Anelka rested, Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti sent out a slightly unfamiliar line-up at Stamford Bridge.

The Italian’s team was still strong enough to kill off Cardiff. In the second minute, Didier Drogba ran onto Jon Obi Mikel’s long pass and fired past Cardiff goalkeeper David Marshall for his 23rd goal of the season.

Cardiff forward Michael Chopra stunned the hosts when he punished poor marking to head the equaliser from Chris Burke’s 34th minute cross.

But Chelsea finally subdued Dave Jones’s side and regained the lead the 51st minute thanks to Michael Ballack’s cool finish from Drogba’s pass.

Young striker Daniel Sturridge added the third goal when he fired through Marshall’s legs in the 69th minute and Salomon Kalou, heading in Paolo Ferreira’s cross, completed the rout with four minutes left.

In the round’s other early kick-off, Portsmouth lifted the gloom around Fratton Park with a 4-1 win at local rivals Southampton.

Avram Grant’s team sit bottom of the Premier League and face the threat of bankruptcy as they battle debts of 60 million pounds and a winding up order over unpaid Customs and Revenue tax bills.

But Pompey, FA Cup winners in 2008, were able to put their off-field problems to one side for 90 minutes as they won the first meeting of these old enemies for five years.

Quincy Owusu-Abeyie came off the bench to give Portsmouth the lead with a fine finish in the 66th minute.

Rickie Lambert headed Southampton level four minutes later, but the visitors’ extra class killed off their League One opponents in the closing stages.

Ivory Coast forward Aruna Dindane put Portsmouth back in front in the 75th minute and Algeria defender Nadir Belhadj slotted home the third in the 82nd minute.

There was still time for Jamie O’Hara, on loan from Tottenham, to rub salt into Southampton’s wounds with a fine strike in the closing moments.