Fulham 1 Chelsea 2: Chelsea remain on course for an unlikely quadruple but were grateful to a horrible goalkeeping error by Edwin van der Sar for their place in the semi-finals.
Fulham's hugely determined display seemed set to bring extra-time until the Dutchman, given a rare start in place of the injured Mark Crossley, allowed a shot by the substitute Frank Lampard to slip over him.
Van der Sar had earlier made a couple of saves and suffered bad luck when Damien Duff's deflected shot found the net to give Chelsea the lead, but Fulham fought back to equalise when Brian McBride turned in a cross by the substitute Elvis Hammond. Even in defeat they can take pride in a spirited performance.
Chelsea had won 4-1 here last month and the rotation here indicated manager Jose Mourinho's desire to keep people in good condition rather than a lack of interest in this competition.
A front three of Arjen Robben, Didier Drogba and Duff was hardly low-key.
Fulham's manager Chris Coleman had spoken of fear that Chelsea might run up "a cricket score" if his team performed as ineptly as against Blackburn, but such words were presumably designed to motivate players he had accused of performing arrogantly.
They seemed to have the desired effect as Fulham began brightly and with great determination. Three times in the opening four minutes they worried Chelsea's defence, including when Andy Cole headed wide from a free-kick.
It was a shame the home portions of the ground were far from full. Coleman had called on his team to show no fear; his players went strongly into tackles and took the game to Chelsea.
There was a zip about some of their early passing, with Mark Pembridge often involved. Fulham's attacking momentum soon petered out but Chelsea, despite enjoying an increasing amount of the ball, were also finding it difficult to create chances.
They were given almost no opportunity to launch the rapid counter-attacks with which they can tear teams apart and Fulham's spirit did not dip. Steed Malbranque was used at the front of midfield but it was plain from his willingness to do defensive work that Fulham realised they would have to put in every ounce of effort to stifle their opponents.
It was a credit to the speed with which Fulham were closing down that it took a while for Chelsea to find any flow. Brian McBride was also dropping back to help out. Significantly for Chelsea, Robben found it hard to get possession on the left in areas where he might hurt Fulham, as he had done so emphatically in the league.
Fulham seemed to have worked on stopping his involvement there and it was when the Dutchman went to the right in the 25th minute that he began to create danger. His run and shot forced Van der Sar into his first action of the evening.
Fulham's goalkeeper will have been relieved not long after when Drogba could not quite get his head to a cross by Duff but Chelsea were still by no means pulling Fulham to pieces even if they had a good deal of pressure.
It epitomised Fulham's doggedness that Carlos Bocanegra slid in to deny Drogba just before half-time and Coleman's team carried occasional threat without seriously looking like scoring, though Cole might have enjoyed sight of goal had he managed a better first touch from a Moritz Volz pass.
Cole scraped a post with a header from a Bocanegra cross not long after the interval but still the pattern remained broadly the same, with Chelsea having most of the forward momentum and Fulham harrying and bravely blocking shots and crosses.
That willingness to get their bodies in the way rebounded on them when Chelsea took the lead. Duff found room for a shot after an interchange with Robben and his effort would no doubt have been saved by Van der Sar had it not taken a big deflection off Ian Pearce.
Afterwards Mourinho was full of praise for Coleman. Mourinho explained: "I felt in the first half it is always difficult when you have to play a team you played 15 days ago. They could study it and prepare for this one - and I felt Chris Coleman did a great job.
"I think he was very strong in the days after the Blackburn game. He put a lot of pressure on his players and their answer was fantastic. During the game tonight I was laughing saying to him 'if you'd been like this against Blackburn you would have beaten them 4-0'."
Guardian Service
FULHAM: Van der Sar, Volz, Pearce, Rehman, Bocanegra, Diop, Pembridge, Legwinski, Malbranque, McBride, Cole (Hammond 73). Subs Not Used: Flitney, Radzinski, Green, Rosenior. Goals: McBride 74.
CHELSEA: Cudicini, Johnson, Ricardo Carvalho, Terry, Bridge, Smertin, Makelele, Parker, Robben (Cole 62), Duff (Lampard 76), Drogba (Gudjohnsen 58). Subs Not Used: Cech, Paulo Ferreira. Goals: Duff 55, Lampard 88.
Referee: S Dunn (Gloucestershire).
