Chelsea will play their 4th Round FA Cup away tie against either MK Dons or QPR after disptaching Portsmouth by four goals to nil at Stanford Bridge.
But this was no rout as the last three late goals came in the last six minutes.
They broke the spirit of the South Coast side, who up until then were Chelsea's equals.
A brace by Ramires, his first on 84 minutes was quickly folllowed by another three minutes later.
Frank Lampard tucked home on 93 minutes to give the impression of a rout, but in truth,it was far from the case.
The Blues only managed to breach the Portsmouth rearguard on 47 minutes and for much of the game laboured against a willing and well drilled opposition.
Portsmouth should have taken a shock lead as early as the first minute - Dave Kitson got between John Terry and David Luiz but screwed his left foot shot, from just inside the Chelsea penalty area, just wide of Petr Cech.
Chelsea responded well and Fernando Torres was muscled out of a challenge by Jason Pearce on 11 minutes. But he more than made up for it by producing a fine glancing header from a Florent Malouda left wing cross a minute later.
That forced Portsmouth goalkeeper Stephen Henderson into a brilliant diving save, turning the goal-bound ball away for a corner.
That was as good as it got for the next 2 minutes or so as both sides failed to carve out any semblance of a chance.
Then, on 35 minutes, Ashley Cole inexplicably passed the ball to David Norris, who left fly with a left-footer that just went past Cech's left upright.
Seconds before the break, the Blues put together a fine move which resulted in Frank Lampard sneaking into the area but before he could tap home,
Henderson raced out and snaffled out the half chance.
Whatever they put in Chelsea's half-time tea worked as the home side took the lead within two minutes of their return to the pitch.
Ashley Cole fed the ball wide to Malouda who raced to the byline. He angled in a low cross and Juan Mata was first to react and the Spain midfielder tucked home a left footer Into the back of the net.
Portsmouth should have equalised on 54 minutes when David Luiz was dispossessed by Kitson on 54 minutes. The ball was passed to Marco Futacs.
The striker forced Cech into a save but the ball rebounded straight to Joel Ward who saw his header cleared off the line byTerry.
The ball then fell into the path of Norris, who saw his first-time shot gleefully held by Cech.
Greg Halford rose unchallenged on 72 minutes from a corner but could only see his effort inch over the Chelsea crossbar as the visitors sought an equaliser.
Sadly for them, all their huff and puff was in vain, as with six minutes remaining, the Blues notched up number two.
Ramires,started and ended the move which involved Lampard, Mata and Torres.
The Brazil midfielder ended up toe-poking the ball past Henderson from close range.
Three minutes later and Ramires hit his second and Chelsea's third.
Again, a quick break saw Lampard and Torres combine to set up Ramires who raced through, he shrugged off a challenge before lifting the ball over Henderson.
Deep into the third minute of injury time, Lampard tucked home a trademark drive from just inside the Portsmouth area to seal what seemed like a rout but in truth was far from it.
Teams: Chelsea - Cech, Cole, Luiz, Ramires, Lampard, Torres, Mata, Malouda, Meireles, Bosingwa, Terry
Subs - Turnbull, Romeu, Lukaku, Ferreira, McEachran, Hutchinson Bertrand
Portsmouth - Henderson, Ward, Rocha, Mokoena, Pearce, Lawrence, Mullins, Futacs, Halford, Kitson, Norris
Subs - Ashdown, Hreidarsson, Huseklepp, Willimas, mwaruwari, Ben Haim, Webster.l