Stoke boss Mark Hughes: We showed great courage against Chelsea

Stoke City boss Mark Hughes said his side showed "great courage" in their dramatic win against Chelsea in the Capital One Cup on Tuesday evening.

The Potters took the lead just after the break with a stunning strike from Jonathan Walters before Loic Remy dragged the holders level in the 91st minute to take the game to extra time.

The additional 30 minutes got off to a bad start for the Potters as Phil Bardsley was dismissed early on for a second yellow card, but they held strong to take the game to penalties. 

The hosts scored all five of their spot-kicks, with Eden Hazard stepping up to take the fifth for Chelsea to send the game to sudden death but Jack Butland made a leaping save to send Stoke into the quarter-finals and dump the Blues out of the competition. 

The Capital One Cup is the only trophy the Potters have ever won, and Hughes praised his side for digging in.

"Overall, I think we deserved the win tonight given the energy, effort and the determination to get into the game which really showed great courage," he said.

"Chelsea arguably had the better of the first half, but in the second half, we restricted to them to very few opportunities. I thought we were good value throughout the game and it was a great strike by Walters to get us ahead.

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"In the third minute of extra-time you think you've got the job done but you can never switch off and unfortunately we made a mistake in our marking and the ball fell to them which shouldn't happen at that late stage.

"I think for a lesser group with lesser desire to go on and win the game, that would've been really tough to take at that point and we lost a man to a sending off as well almost immediately into the first half of extra time so in those circumstances, you've just got to dig in.

"I thought they showed great courage today to stick with it and try and get us to penalties which is always a bit of a lottery but I have to say I thought our pens were magnificent and in the end it took a great save from Jack to get us into the next round."

Stoke continue a fine tradition of eliminating Chelsea every time they have faced them in the League Cup and Hughes declared himself up for a cup run. 

"We've always placed significance on the cup competitions," he added.

"This club wants to progress and we're doing fine. We want to go on a cup run, we enjoy it and it's something for the fans to get excited about.

"You heard the noise at the end, it was something special and we'll enjoy it but we've got another big game at the weekend. They come thick and fast but we'll enjoy tonight and look ahead to the weekend in the coming days."