Fri, Feb 06, 2004 - Page 22 News List

Manchester City snatches victory from jaws of defeat

AP , LONDON, MADRID,PARIS AND FRANKFURT

Manchester City rallied from 3-0 and one man down to beat Tottenham 4-3 in an FA Cup replay Wednesday to set up a fifth round match against Manchester United.

Tottenham led 3-0 at White Hart Lane at halftime with goals from Ledley King, Robbie Keane and Christian Ziege. City's Joey Barton was dismissed at the end of the first half for picking up a second yellow card.

City then rallied to one of the greatest comebacks in FA Cup history to score four goals through Sylvain Distin, Paul Bosvelt, Shaun Wright-Phillips and an injury-time winner from Jon Macken.

"We went for it with our hearts, for the club and for the fans and just happened to pull it off," said Wright-Phillips.

"The gaffer [manager Kevin Keegan] said 'it might take a miracle to do it' -- but we believed in ourselves."

Macken was substituted for Nicolas Anelka, who picked up groin injury after 27 minutes.

"Games like this make football so exciting. It was a fantastic game -- credit to all the players," he said.

The two sides had drawn 1-1 in Manchester on Jan. 25.

At Loftus Road, Steed Malbranque scored in extra time to give Fulham a 2-1 win over Everton in another fourth round replay.

Everton's Francis Jeffers scored a 90th-minute equalizer after Fulham's Japanese striker Junichi Inamoto opened the scoring in the 57th minute.

Everton had also rallied for a 1-1 draw against Fulham on Jan. 25.

Fulham will host first division West Ham in the next round, to be held on Feb. 14-15.

Copa del Rey

Santiago Solari and Raul Gonzalez scored second-half goals as Real Madrid beat Sevilla 2-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in the first-leg of the Copa del Rey semi-finals.

Madrid's victory gave it a comfortable advantage to take into next Wednesday's second leg in Seville and boosted its hopes of lifting the trophy for the first time since 1993.

Today, second-division team Alaves hosts Zaragoza in the other semifinal. The final is scheduled for March 17.

Sevilla, which trounced Madrid in the Spanish league 4-1 in November, gave the powerhouse another tough game and deserved a better result from an intense encounter.

``We have the benefit of home advantage. It's going to be difficult for us to advance but it's certainly not impossible,'' Sevilla coach Joaquin Caparros said.

Madrid coach Carlos Queiroz said his team's victory had resulted from its patient approach.

``The spectators in the stadium recognized this and toward the end of the second half we were all united and the team got a good result,'' Queiroz said.

Madrid suffered a major blow just before kick off when ace striker Ronaldo, the Spanish league's leading scorer with 18 goals, was forced to pull out with a high temperature.

Queiroz reacted by drafting Solari into midfield and left Spanish international Raul alone to spearhead the Madrid attack.

Raul was presented with the first chance of the game in the seventh minute but wasted it by ballooning his shot over the crossbar.

For the rest of the first half, Sevilla defended in depth and threatened to catch Madrid on the counterattack with Uruguayan international Dario Silva leading his team's attack with panache.

Madrid was hit by the withdrawal of a second star player, Portuguese midfielder Luis Figo, who after a promising start was replaced by Javier Portillo in the 33rd minute.

Sevilla was eventually pushed back in the final minutes of the first half when goalkeeper Esteban Suarez kept out Zinedine Zidane's stinging shot and then tipped Portillo's header over the bar.

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