Chelsea squeezed into the 4th round of the Carling Cup in dramatic penalty shoot-out fashion tonight at Stamford Bridge.
Open play remainder at 0-0 after 120 minutes and the home side won the match 4-3 despite Frank Lampard missing the opening spot kick.
Fulham saw Mousa Dembele and finally Bryan Ruiz miss his decisive kick that saw the Blue half of Fulham Road dance for joy on the pitch.
But Fulham could and probably should have won in normal time.
Chelsea had the better of the opening half with Malouda unlucky not to score on 15 minutes. Then Stephen Kelly produced a fine lunging tackle to halt the France winger.
Petr Cech failed to come out for the second half following a clash minutes before the break with Orlando SA.
Then two minutes after the restart, centre-back Alex upended livewire midfielder Karlm Frei in the box. Referee Chris Foy sent off the Brazilian and pointed to the penalty spot.
Up stepped Pajtim Kasami who blasted his left-footer crashing against the crossbar.
Down to 10 men, Chelsea mounted a rearguard action while Fulham continued to play the better controlled football.
Half chances came and went for the remainder of the second half with Chelsea getting g the lions’
Extra time saw tiredness take over the game and the match petered out.
But then came the drama of the penalty shoot-out.
On this occasion it was Chelsea who won out, but Fulham can look back at an encounter that will live long in the memories of some of their young players.