Centerbacks Robert Huth and John Terry headed Chelsea into the last 16 of the FA Cup in a 2-0 victory over Birmingham City on Sunday.
The German and English internationals scored a goal in each half as Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho stayed on course for four titles in his first season in English soccer.
Chelsea is 10 points clear atop the Premier League, faces Liverpool in the League Cup final and is also going strong in the Champions League.
PHOTO: AP
In Sunday's other FA Cup game, Bolton scored a 1-0 victory at League One Oldham.
Mourinho, who moved to Chelsea after guiding FC Porto to a Champions League triumph last season, rested eight of the players that beat Manchester United 2-1 on Wednesday to reach the League Cup final.
His team soon went ahead at Stamford Bridge when Huth arrived unmarked at the near post and headed home a left wing corner in the sixth minute.
Chelsea made sure of a place in the last 16 when Frank Lampard floated a ball into the area and Terry guided a long range angled header inside the far post in the 80th minute.
On Saturday, Terry's brother, Mark, scored for Yeovil in a 3-2 loss at Charlton.
"At half time, the reality was that the score was 1-0 and should have been two or three or four because we had played fantastic football," Mourinho said. "In the second half we didn't. It was our fault but they improved a lot."
The Chelsea manager also denied a newspaper report that his club had made an illegal approach to try and sign England defender Ashley Cole.
"It's not true," he said. "Every player who is a really good player, or any agents who try to improve the situation of his player, the player is always connected with Chelsea. I've never met the boy. I've just played against him."
Teenage Portuguese striker Ricardo Vaz Te fired Bolton into the fifth round and made sure League One Oldham didn't claim another Premier League victim in a 1-0 victory for Wanderers.
Oldham was out to add to its upset victory over Manchester City in the previous round.
But Vaz Te, an 18-year-old Lisbon-born forward who joined Bolton as a trainee, struck in the ninth minute at Boundary Park, although his close range header should have been saved by Oldham's Australian goalkeeper Les Pogliacomi.
Ricardo Gardner swung in a cross from the left wing and Vaz Te dived between two defenders to head goalwards. Pogliacomi got a hand to the ball but it slipped past him and inside his left hand post.
The results mean that the weekend's 16 fourth-round games didn't have a single upset.
Defending champion and record 11-time winner Manchester United marched into the last 16 with a 3-0 beating of Middlesbrough on Saturday with Wayne Rooney scoring two spectacular goals.
His first was a 35m lob over stranded Boro goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer and the second was a first-time volley from the edge of the area.
"They are two of the best I have ever scored," the teenage England striker said. "That's three in the FA Cup now, so hopefully I can carry on and get a few more in the next round."
Nine-time winner Arsenal beat League Championship Wolves 2-0 and Blackburn, Newcastle and Everton comfortably beat teams from the lower divisions.
A penalty in the third minute of injury time gave Southampton a 2-1 victory over neighbor Portsmouth as Saints' new manager, Harry Redknapp, ousted the club he left six weeks ago.
Fulham was held 1-1 by Derby, while a meeting of two Premier League clubs, West Bromwich Albion and Tottenham also ended 1-1.
Chris Sutton's penalty made it seven goals in eight games for the English striker on Sunday as Celtic restored its three-point lead in the Scottish title race with a 1-0 victory at Kilmarnock.
After Rangers' 3-0 victory over Livingston on Saturday had put the Gers top on goal difference, the Hoops couldn't afford a loss at Rugby Park.
But Sutton netted his 13th goal of the season from the spot in the 37th minute after Killy's Danny Invincible had handled in the area.
The result was Celtic's 20th victory in 24 league games and Martin O'Neill's team now has 62 points with Rangers second on 59.
David Beckham scored from a trademark free kick and defender Michel Salgado added a rare goal Sunday to earn visiting Real Madrid a 2-1 victory over last-place Numancia in the Spanish league.
Beckham swept home a free kick from the edge of the area in the 63rd minute. It was the England captain's fourth goal in the league this season -- which is one more than he scored last season.
Madrid doubled its lead in the 83rd when Michael Owen found Salgado, who held off a defensive challenge before slipping the ball home for his first goal in nearly a year.
It was Madrid's fifth straight win under coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo, and it cut FC Barcelona's lead at the top of the standings to seven points. Barcelona, which crushed Sevilla 4-0 on Saturday, has 51 points and Madrid has 44.
"Victory was all that mattered to us because if we hadn't achieved it Barcelona would have been too far in front," Luxemburgo was quoted as saying by news agency Efe. "I'm happy but we've still got a lot to do."
In Sunday's late game, third-place Valencia rallied to a 2-2 draw with Athletic Bilbao, falling 14 points behind Barcelona and virtually ending its hopes of retaining its league title.
Also Sunday, host Espanyol moved into fourth place with a 2-2 draw at home against Real Betis.
Bayern Munich pulled a point clear in the Bundesliga, but wasted a chance to shake off its rivals with a 0-0 draw against Hertha Berlin.
After Schalke and Stuttgart lost Saturday, Bayern could have moved three points ahead in the table, but instead fought a defensive struggle on an icy evening with a side unbeaten in nine matches.
"It might have lacked a little suspense for the spectators because of too few scoring scenes, but that's what happens when two top defenses face off," Bayern coach Felix Magath said.
Werder Bremen, the defending champions, jumped into fifth place -- seven points behind Bayern -- by holding on for a 3-2 victory against bottom Rostock with two goals from forward Ivan Klasnic.
In front of 74,000 at Berlin's Olympiastadion, goalkeeper Christian Fiedler saved the home side late in the match, deflecting a 33m blast from Owen Hargreaves outside the right post.
The leaping 'keeper collided with the post and bent over in pain, but kept playing as Berlin retained its status of giving up the fewest goals in the Bundesliga, just 17 in 19 matches.
Bayern ran its unbeaten record to 10 matches, but had to survive an onslaught from Berlin to start the match. In the eighth minute, the Berlin fans leaped in joy as Brazilian Gilberto appeared to shoot their team ahead.
But the referee ruled two of his teammates were offsides, although the two players did not figure in the play.
"We played fantastic the first 20 minutes, but failed to score a goal," Berlin coach Falko Goetz said. "After that both teams just hung back and waited for the other to make a mistake."
Bremen kept alive its flickering hopes of retaining the title while Rostock was buried deeper in the cellar. The East German team is nine points away from 15th place, which would keep it in the league.
But Bremen was also lucky when Germany defender Frank Baumann wasn't whistled for a hand ball in the area.
"From the sideline I saw a clear penalty -- it's a mystery why that wasn't called. It would have been a very important point for us," Rostock coach Joerg Berger said.
Klasnic scored in the fifth and 62nd minutes and teammate Miroslav Klose in the 32nd, while Rostock's goals came from David Rasmussen in the 45th and Thomas Rasmussen in the 64th.
Serie A leader Juventus beat last-place Atalanta 2-1 to open up an eight-point lead over defending champion AC Milan, which slumped to a 1-0 home loss against lowly Bologna.
Juventus won at Bergamo on a first-half goal by Uruguayan midfielder Ruben Olivera and a second-half penalty converted by star forward Alessandro Del Piero, fielded minutes earlier as a second-half substitute. Olivera scored in the 23rd minute from outside the area with a lob which caught Atalanta goalkeeper Alex Calderoni out of position.
Del Piero converted the penalty in the 80th for his seventh goal this season after Mauro Camoranesi was fouled deep in Atalanta area.
Braga defeated defending European champion FC Porto 3-1 to move into first place in the league.
Striker Joao Tomas scored on a header for Braga in the 21st minute, but Porto's Diego Ribas da Cunha equalized in the 33rd. Midfielder Wenderson Wender scored on a header in the last minute of the first half and Thomas sealed the win with a goal in the 75th.
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