FOUR teams now remain in the quest for FA Cup glory this season. Bolton Wanderers, Manchester United, Stoke City and Manchester City can all look forward to a Wembley trip for the semi-finals next month, but who will have a second visit in May.
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| DYING: Lee Chung Young earns Bolton a rare semi-final |
Bolton Wanderers became the first side through to the semi-finals, after securing a last gasp 3-2 win over Carling Cup winners Birmingham City at St. Andrews. Twice, Birmingham fought back from falling behind, but Lee Chung-Young’s header in the dying stages earnt Bolton a semi-final in this competition for the first time since 2000. Bolton have been the better side in the Premiership this season, but were made to work very hard by a Birmingham team that has been decimated by injuries and fatigue since their League Cup triumph a fortnight ago. Johan Elmander had Wanderers infront after ten minutes, before Cameron Jerome’s delightful volley had the home side back on terms. Curtis Davies daft foul on his namesake Kevin allowed Bolton the chance to get back ahead, which the striker didn’t waste from the penalty spot. With ten minutes to go, Kevin Phillips produced a quality volley with the instinct to goal that he has shown throughout his amazing career, before Davies beat Jean Beausejour to head a free-kick across the box and allow Korean Lee to nod in from close range to settle a pulsating tie.
The standout tie was the meeting of the Premiership top two on Saturday night. However, it turned out to be a comfortable 2-0 success for Manchester United against Arsenal at Old Trafford. The Gunners had plenty of crafty build-up play and produced several good opportunities. Edwin van der Sar being named man of the match highlights the fact that Arsenal looked better going forward. However, Wenger’s men couldn’t provide the final touch, which is starting to become a very familiar story. Brazilian left-back Fabio steered Manchester United infront on 25 minutes, turning in from close range once his twin Rafael had been denied by the valiant Manuel Almunia. Wayne Rooney looked somewhere near his best and the striker sealed the match as a contest five minutes into the second half, as Arsenal failed to deal with a trademark United counter-attack. Wenger’s mood wouldn’t be helped by a nasty collision between Bakary Sagna and Johan Djourou in their desperate attempts to stop Javier Hernandez score a third. Djourou came off worse; the Swiss defender out for the remainder of the season with a fractured shoulder. Arsenal are now a wounded club, knocked out of three competitions in the space of a fortnight and are likely to end up without a trophy AGAIN! For Sir Alex Ferguson, a repeat of that historic treble in 1999 is still potentially on the cards.
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| HOBBLED: Piquionne limps off as the Hammers lose at Stoke |
Stoke City made their first FA Cup semi-final in 39 years, edging out West Ham United 2-1 in the game of the weekend. It was a tie full of controversy, and Avram Grant has since been charged by the FA for improper conduct. This followed his comments about the referee Mike Jones, who it must be said, had a terrible game. Stoke’s formula one was to score from a long throw-in and this they achieved in the eighth minute. Rory Delap’s throw-in found the head of Robert Huth who powered Stoke infront. In a nine-year career, Huth had scored only seven goals before this season, but he has eight in this season alone. The Hammers equaliser was very controversial on the half hour mark. Thomas Hitzlsperger’s wonderful diagonal ball found Frederic Piquionne, who controlled the ball with his arm. Accidentally or not, the goal should have been ruled out. Piquionne did well to finish with the ball in the net, but a collision with Danny Pugh finished his afternoon prematurely. Tony Pulis was furious with the decision, but 18 seconds into the second half, parity was restored. Matthew Etherington went down under the minimalist of contact from Scott Parker and Jones amazingly gave a penalty! Justice was done as the excellent Robert Green saved Etherington’s penalty. On the hour mark, Danny Higginbotham’s fierce free-kick took a deflection off Parker and just crossed the line before Green could keep it out. Ultimately, it settled the tie, although Stoke survived a late penalty claim and Matthew Upson rattled the crossbar with a bullet of a header. No glory for Grant this year in his specialist subject, and now, only a tense battle to beat the drop faces West Ham.
They may not be playing their best football of the season, but Manchester City has a habit to juggle out results on a regular basis. They secured the final semi-final berth, at the expense of Championship play-off contenders Reading. Reading’s resistance was broken in the final fifteen minutes as David Silva’s corner was powered in by Micah Richards. It was Richards’s third goal of the season and it finally found a way past Alex McCarthy. He produced several top-class stops to keep City out for long periods.
All that means we have a semi-final weekend of Manchester City v Manchester United and Bolton Wanderers v Stoke City on April 17 and April 18. Wembley has arrived for the last four, but who will be feeling the joy and pain. The countdown to the semi-finals has begun . . .
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