Sometimes in the beautiful game, fairytales and dreams can come true and once again, Portsmouth couldn’t keep themselves out of the headlines. Their crazy season took another amazing twist, with the fans now having the opportunity to look forward at a day out at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-finals.
The competition that Pompey won back in 2008, is keeping their season alive and it seems that the recent plunge into administration has actually bought the players and staff closer together. For Avram Grant, it was another emotional moment in his managerial career in England. Vilified at Chelsea, despite doing a decent job and taking them a kick away from European glory in 2008, he is doing the best he can on such limited resources and should take huge credit for keeping the player’s belief together in such traumatic financial times down on the South Coast.
Saturday 2-0 lunchtime win against in-form Birmingham City was impressive and the main story of a fairly pedestrian and disappointing quarter-final weekend, certainly by this year’s high competition standards. On-loan striker Frederic Piquionne scored both goals for relegation-bound Portsmouth, but Birmingham can feel aggrieved at being denied a certain goal, due to the lack of technology. On Saturday morning, FIFA ruled out the use of goal-line technology at a meeting in Zurich. Hours later, Liam Ridgewell’s header at Fratton Park was fumbled by David James and clearly went over the line. However, to Ridgewell and Alex McLeish’s chagrin, none of the officials saw it and the ‘goal’ was not given.
The other main headline was Aston Villa’s stunning second half resurgence at the Madjevski Stadium. Just seven days after their Carling Cup final agony, Villa’s players looked hungover and lacking hunger for the fight in the first half at Championship strugglers Reading. Two goals from Shane Long had the Royals 2-0 up at half-time, playing beautiful football and all set to add Villa to their list of conquests this season, which includes Liverpool and West Brom. Martin O’Neill borrowed the Ferguson hairdryer, ripped into his superstars at half-time and their response was clinical. Norwegian striker John Carew scored an outstanding hat-trick, and Ashley Young added his name to the scoresheet, as O’Neill’s side charged back to win the game 4-2. It was cruel on Reading, who as a team, has given the competition so much entertainment this season, but in the end, Premiership true quality eventually shone through.
Once again, Chelsea had little trouble in progression, reaching their 4th semi-final in five seasons. Stoke City, who embarrassed Arsenal and Manchester City in this competition were very tentative, and put up little resistance in a comfortable 2-0 win for the holders at Stamford Bridge. As ever, John Terry couldn’t keep himself out of the headlines, powering home Chelsea’s second goal from a Frank Lampard corner and the release of emotion in his dynamic celebration suggests someone still is feeling hurt by losing his England captaincy.
The final quarter-final was dour and forgettable. London rivals Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur play out a disappointing 0-0 stalemate on Saturday night, in an even contest at Craven Cottage that lacked attacking ineptitude. Fulham looked the more likely to score, with Zoltan Gera and Damien Duff both testing Gomes. A replay beckons, which for both is a real pain, with Fulham still in the UEFA Europa League and Tottenham busy in the scrap for 4th place in the Premiership table. Hopefully, the return at White Hart Lane will be more eventful.
Yesterday, the semi-final draw paired Aston Villa v Chelsea and Portsmouth v Fulham or Tottenham. For Portsmouth fans, the possibility to overcome Harry Redknapp is the semi-finals would be sweet, but Chelsea still looks overwhelming favourites to defend their trophy. Wembley beckons for the final five, but quite rightly this weekend, the main story of success belonged to Portsmouth FC.
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