FA Cup: Holders dumped out, while United and Chelsea advance | inside World Soccer

FA Cup: Holders dumped out, while United and Chelsea advance

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Swansea City was the FA Cup's fourth round giant-killers as they defeated defending champions Portsmouth, while former manager Harry Redknapp fared no better as Manchester United eliminated Tottenham.

Aston Villa were held goalless by Doncaster and Chelsea needed second-half free-kicks from Michael Ballack and Frank Lampard to beat Ipswich.

Portsmouth's struggles continued at Fratton Park as second-tier Swansea sent them crashing out of the competition with a 2-0 defeat.

Swansea winger Nathan Dyer, on loan from Pompey's south coast rival, Southampton, opened the scoring in the 26th minute when he fired Jason Scotland's floated pass into the bottom right of the net.

Scotland then inflicted further misery on Pompey when he slotted home a penalty in first-half injury time after Jordi Gómez was fouled by Nadir Belhadj.

Ex-Tottenham striker Dimitar Berbatov scored United's decisive goal in a 2-1 victory over his old side to send the Red Devils through to the next round.

Roman Pavlyuchenko put the visitors ahead in the fifth minute with a glancing header past goalkeeper Ben Foster.

But Paul Scholes got the equaliser for the home side in the 35th minute when his low shot from distance was deflected by Tom Huddlestone and flew past goalkeeper Ben Alnwick.

A minute later United made it 2-1 when a well-timed through ball by Michael Carrick released Berbatov, who coolly controlled the ball before slotting home.

Villa, fourth in the Premier League, struggled to find form at Doncaster and will need a replay against a side struggling in the League Championship relegation zone.

Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor hit the crossbar, but Doncaster's Martin Woods was twice denied by the frame of the goal.

Ballack bagged a brace to put Chelsea in the fifth round of the FA Cup after a hard-fought 3-1 win against Ipswich.

Ballack scored his first on 16 minutes when he turned home Ashley Cole's cross from six meters yards.

But Ipswich equalised in the 35th minute when Alex Bruce fired home from point-blank range after Owen Garvin's free-kick had caused panic in the Chelsea box.

Any hopes the Tractor Boys had of causing an upset disappeared, though, on 59 minutes when Ballack bent a free kick over the defensive wall and into the net.

Lampard then completed the scoring five minutes from time with a stunning 35-yard free-kick.


Others scorline in FA Cup on Saturday:
Hartlepool2-0West Ham
Hull2-0Millwall
Kettering2-4Fulham
Sheff Utd2-1Charlton
Sunderland0-0Blackburn
Torquay0-1Coventry
Watford4-2Crystal Palace
West Brom2-2Burnley
Wolverhampton1-2


Please subscribe to our RSS feed to receive more updates. You can also subscribe by Email and enjoy our latest posts sent directly to your inbox.


Also see:
 
Copyright © 2016. Privacy Policy
Design by Herdiansyah Hamzah & Distributed by Free Blogger Templates
Creative Commons License