Backed by a vocal home crowd, Lincoln were determined to cause a cup upset as they hosted Chelsea at the LNER Stadium, and gave a strong initial showing to surprisingly lead at half-time, having hit the post early, before Rob Street put them ahead.

However, after half-time, Chelsea fought back and turned the game upside down in the space of three minutes. The equaliser was brilliant and emphatic, George seizing on a loose ball outside the box to fire in an unstoppable half-volley, which was past the keeper and in off the right-hand post before he saw it.

Almost immediately, we had the ball in the back of the net for a second time, and were ahead in the game five minutes into the second half. After receiving the ball from George, Buonanotte managed to evade a host of defenders to waltz his way into the box, kept on going, and rolled the ball past the keeper for his first Chelsea goal.

Those two quickfire goals took some of the fight out of Lincoln and we were able to see out the majority of the second half without too much danger, and went close to extending our lead further when Buonanotte was denied another goal by the keeper's feet.

The selection

Enzo Maresca rotated his side for this evening’s third-round tie. The first change was between the posts, as Filip Jorgensen comes in as goalkeeper for the suspended Robert Sanchez. Our centre-back pairing was the only unchanged part of the team, with Trevoh Chalobah and Wesley Fofana lining up together again. At full-back, Malo Gusto and Jorrel Hato replaced Reece James and Marc Cucurella.

Enzo Fernandez was the other player to retain his place, captaining the Blues alongside Andrey Santos in midfield, instead of Moises Caicedo. Ahead of them, Alejandro Garnacho was picked in the starting XI for the first time. Facundo Buonanotte and Jamie Gittens joined him in supporting striker Tyrique George. Pedro Neto, Cole Palmer, Estevao Willian and Joao Pedro all made way.

Fierce welcome

It was clear right from the first whistle that our League One opponents were intent on giving their illustrious Premier League visitors a tough night at the LNER Stadium. The tone was set immediately when Tom Hamer launched a long throw deep into the Chelsea box. It was half cleared but, when the loose ball fell to Lewis Monstma, he smashed a low drive into the post. Thankfully it bounced all the way back across goal and out of danger.

When Jorgensen came to deal with the next ball into the box himself, he was able to clear, but at the cost of hurting himself and Fofana. The break while they received treatment may actually have worked in Chelsea’s favour, temporarily quietening the early roar from the home crowd. It didn’t last long though, as the Lincoln support were lifted by every free-kick, every corner and every throw-in awarded to their side.

We started to show some threat after the first 15 minutes, Buonanotte opening Lincoln up with a searching ball out to Garnacho on the left, but it was abruptly ended when Garnacho showed he had the beating of his man for pace, only to be unceremoniously hacked down for a free-kick.

It was difficult to put pressure on Lincoln during the first period of the match, as their relentless pressing, physicality and desire to get the ball forward quickly prevented the game from falling into any real rhythm.

Standing strong

There were a couple of dangerous crosses at either end, but neither team could get their attacking players on the end of them, with both boxes getting crowded in the first half. The game’s biggest threat remained Lincoln’s attempts to load our penalty area for set-pieces.

At one corner they came the closest to a goal since that shot hit the post in the opening exchanges. Sonny Bradley met the delivery first and his downward header bounced narrowly wide of Jorgensen’s left-hand post.

Behind at the break

The Chelsea supporters briefly thought we had taken the lead with what would have been a brilliant solo goal by Gittens, when he spun his marker out by the left touchline and surged into space to fire a fierce effort from a tight angle, but despite the brief cheers of the travelling fans, it had hit the outside of the net.

Instead, moments later, it was Lincoln who took the lead. It came from their forward players’ relentless press, as Ivan Varfolomeev nicked possession away from us deep into our half and, when the ball arrived at the feet of striker Street, he made no mistake in rolling his finish into the bottom corner.

Bouncing back in style

We came out for the second half looking determined to put that first half behind us and stamp our authority on the game, and it didn’t takes us long to turn the match on its head.

It was teenager George who emphatically pulled us level, almost straight from the restart. A Chelsea throw on the left bounced around between players briefly, with no-one able to get it under control. Until it fell into George’s path, that is. The forward showed no hesitation as he unleased a fierce half-volley from just outside the box, which rocketed in off the inside of the right-hand post.

Two minutes later, the Blues had taken the lead, in an incredible turnaround. George added an assist to his goal, but this one was all about the work of Buonanotte. On just his second start for the club, the Argentinian somehow weaved a path through a crowd of bodies on the edge of the box, carried on into it, and rolled the ball towards goal to wrong-foot the keeper and get his first goal in a Chelsea shirt.

Chelsea had the lead now, but there was no doubt that we were going to have to work hard to keep it. By the time we reached the hour mark, Lincoln had regrouped and refound some of their early confidence, again looking for any opportunity to hoist the ball toward our penalty area early.

We had more space to play in than we had in the first half, though, allowing us to maintain the threat we had struggled to show before the break, as shown when Fernandez headed a Buonanotte cross just wide of the back post.

Seeing the game out

The Blues’ best chance of easing the pressure to help maintain our one-goal lead seemed to be taking the sting out of the atmosphere inside the LNER Stadium, and we did our best to slow the pace of the game, while looking for the third goal which would give us a margin for error.

To that end, Maresca made a trio of changes. Experienced heads Pedro Neto and Marc Cucurella both came on, to replace Fernandez and Gittens, while up front we swapped one teenager for another, as George made way to give Shumaira Mheuka his first senior appearance of the season.

Lincoln had their moments from set-pieces, but were rarely able to trouble Jorgensen, and it was Chelsea who came closest to adding to the scoreline, through efforts by Neto and Buonanotte.

Neither was able to find the net, but in the end it didn’t matter, as two goals proved to be enough to overcome our League One opponents and progress to the next round.

What it means

Chelsea are into the draw for the fourth round of the Carabao Cup, which will be held after the conclusion of Arsenal's game against Port Vale on Wednesday evening. You can find out who the Blues will face next first on the Chelsea Official App and website.

What is next

Chelsea return to Premier League action this weekend and are back at Stamford Bridge after four consecutive away fixtures. We host Brighton & Hove Albion at 3pm on Saturday 27 September. Attention then switches to the UEFA Champions League, with Benfica the visitors to west London at 8pm on Tuesday 30 September.

The teams

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Jorgensen; Gusto, Fofana, Chalobah, Hato; Santos, Fernandez (c) (Cucurella 71); Gittens (Neto 71), Buonanotte (Walsh 90+5), Garnacho (Estevao 59); George (Mheuka 71)
Unused subs: Slonina, James, Caicedo, Harrison
Scorer: George 47, Buonanotte 49
Booked: Santos 21, Fernandez 55, Jorgensen 89, Cucurella 90+3

Lincoln: (5-3-2): Jeacock; Darikwa (c), Montsma (Okoronkwo 86), Bradley, Towler, Hamer; House (Hackett 71), McGrandles, Varfolomeev (Bayliss 71); Street (Obikwu 71), Draper (Collins 71)
Unused subs: Wickens, Reach, Thorn, Ring
Scorer: Street 43
Booked: House 63

Referee: Matt Donohue

Crowd: 10,214