Premier League leaders Liverpool will face city rivals Everton in the FA Cup after the Merseyside teams were the first two clubs selected in the fourth round draw.
The northwest giants met in the 1986 and 1989 FA Cup finals, Liverpool winning on both occasions.
“It’s going to be a massive game,” former Everton captain Kevin Ratcliffe told Sky Sports. “The FA Cup is one that maybe Everton thought they could go all the way in. Obviously this has made it a bit harder, coming up against Liverpool. It’s hard enough going up against Liverpool, but when you’re without your main strikers then it’s going to be difficult. But anything can happen.”
Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest’s reward for knocking out Premier League Manchester City was a fourth round clash with East Midlands rivals Derby County, who also play in the second-tier Championship. It will be a particularly significant tie for former Derby boss Billy Davies who took over as Forest manager yesterday.
“I’m absolutely delighted,” Davies said. “I’ve got lots of great friends and lots of great memories at Derby. But I’ve moved on to the next chapter at Forest and I’m excited by that challenge.”
Third-tier Hartlepool United, conquerors of Stoke City in the third round, will have the chance to inflict further Cup misery on a Premier League side when they welcome West Ham United to the northeast.
Hartlepool assistant manager Ian Butterworth said: “It’s a fantastic draw for the club. If the lads can produce the performance of Saturday, and the guts and character, we’ll give them one hell of a game.”
Manchester United, who’ve won the Cup a record 11 times, will be at home to Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
“A home tie is all you can hope for, it’s quite a good draw,” United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said.
Kettering Town, one of four non-league clubs left in the draw, are at home to Premier League Fulham.
“Any Premier League side is brilliant for us, especially getting them at home as well,” Kettering striker Gareth Seddon said.
Cardiff City, last season’s losing finalists, are up against Arsenal in a repeat of the 1927 final that the Welsh club won to become the only non-English side to lift the FA Cup.
“We’ve got the most passionate crowd and at home we stand a chance, but let’s not forget Arsenal are one of the best teams in the world,” Cardiff chairman Peter Ridsdale said.
Holders Portsmouth, who must first get past Bristol City after a goalless draw at Fratton Park, could face either non-league Histon, conquerors of fallen giants Leeds United, or Swansea City.
The ties will be played on the weekend of Jan. 24 and Jan. 25, with the third round replays scheduled to take place on Jan. 13.
FA Cup fourth round draw:
Liverpool v Everton, Manchester Utd v Tottenham, Hull or Newcastle v Millwall or Crewe, Sunderland v Blyth Spartans or Blackburn, Hartlepool v West Ham, Leyton Orient or Sheffield Utd v Charlton or Norwich, Cardiff v Arsenal, Portsmouth or Bristol City v Histon or Swansea, Chelsea or Southend v Ipswich, Cheltenham or Doncaster v Aston Villa, West Brom or Peterborough v QPR or Burnley, Torquay v Coventry, Kettering v Fulham, Watford v Leicester or Crystal Palace, Derby v Nottingham Forest, Birmingham or Wolves v Middlesbrough.
Also See: THE FA CUP: United too strong as the Saints go marching out
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier