Non-league Burton Albion drew 0-0 with mighty Manchester United in the FA Cup on Sunday, the second season in a row the record 11-time winner has been held by a semi-pro team.
On a day of unexpected results, League Championship Leicester came from 2-0 down to oust Tottenham 3-2 thanks to an injury time winner, and League Two Leyton Orient won 2-1 at Fulham.
Although United fielded a backup side, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo played for the last 30 minutes at the Pirelli Stadium against an Albion side 105 places below the Reds and which included a builder, a sports shop assistant and a physiotherapist.
PHOTO: AP
Rooney had two shots saved by Albion goalkeeper Saul Deeney, who also blocked a goalbound drive from Ritchie Jones in injury time.
"Old Trafford here we come" cried Deeney, who has nine brothers, seven of them Manchester United fans.
Nigel Clough's Albion will go to 67,000-seat Old Trafford for a lucrative replay.
PHOTO: EPA
"It was a staggering performance," said Clough, whose father, Brian Clough, led Nottingham Forest to back-to-back European Cup triumphs in 1979 and 1980. "Facing Manchester United in a replay, it's absolutely superb for everyone."
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said he was relieved his team didn't lose.
"It's a sudden death tournament. With a difficult pitch, committed opponents, I think these things can happen," Ferguson said. "You can get shocks. Fortunately we didn't get a severe shock."
PHOTO: AP
Last season, Manchester United drew 0-0 with non-league Exeter before winning the replay and going on to lose the final against Arsenal on penalties.
Fourth in the Premier League, Tottenham appeared to be coasting into the fourth round when Jermaine Jenas and Canadian Paul Stalteri put Martin Jol's team 2-0 up before halftime at Leicester.
But Elvis Hammond and Stephen Hughes hit back for the Foxes and, with the two sides seemingly going to a replay, Leicester hit the winner in the second minute of injury time.
Mark de Vries took a through ball from Joey Gudjohnsen and went on to stroke the ball past England goalkeeper Paul Robinson.
In a meeting of two London clubs never to have won any of English soccer's domestic titles, Craig Easton put Orient in front after 17 minutes at Fulham and Joe Keith added a second a minute before halftime.
Collins John scored for Fulham in the 50th, but squandered a chance to make it 2-2 when Orient goalkeeper Glyn Garner saved a penalty kick awarded for a foul on Luis Boa Morte.
Last in the Premier League, Sunderland made sure it would not be an upset victim when it cruised to a 3-0 victory over non-league Northwich Victoria with goals by Neill Collins, Dean Whitehead and Anthony Le Tallec. It was the first victory since September for Mick McCarthy's team.
Saturday's standout game came when Liverpool fought back from 3-1 down to win 5-3 at League Championship side Luton.
Defending champion Arsenal made it to the fourth round by beating Cardiff 2-1, and Chelsea edged League Two's Huddersfield 2-1 after Eidur Gudjohnsen scored eight minutes from the end.
However, Middlesbrough drew 1-1 with non-league Nuneaton, and Birmingham drew 0-0 with Torquay, next-to-last in League Two. Everton was held 1-1 by Millwall, which is next-to-last in the League Championship. West Bromwich Albion drew 1-1 with Reading, which is leading the League Championship by nine points.
Division One Clyde ruined Roy Keane's Celtic debut by knocking the Premier League leader out of the Scottish Cup with a 2-1 victory.
In one of the biggest upsets in the Scottish game's history, early goals by Craig Bryson and Eddie Malone meant that the team that has never won the league beat the record 33-time cup winner which had won the trophy for the last two seasons.
"We knew if we got about them, we could get a result today," Malone said. "So we are not surprised. But it hasn't sunk in yet that we have created history.
"We saw they were vulnerable at the back against Hearts last week and we also went to [Rangers] and got a draw over 90 minutes earlier in the season [in the Scottish League Cup]."
Clyde's previous victory over Celtic had been 48 years ago, when it won the last of its three Scottish Cup titles. It will host division two Gretna for a place in the quarterfinals.
Managed by former Tottenham and Rangers defender Graham Roberts, Clyde mastered a muddy field and created lots of chances.
"We absolutely annihilated them," said Roberts, a former England international midfielder. "If we hadn't won, I think it would have been an injustice. We were absolutely magnificent from the first minute to the last minute."
With Keane having a quiet debut, Celtic was guilty of giving the ball away too many times in midfield and Clyde continually put pressure on the side that leads the Premier League by seven points. Keane left Manchester United in November after 12 years with the club to move to the team he supported as a boy.
Fourth in division one, Clyde had two goals disallowed in the first half hour before the next two counted. Tom Brighton's strike was ruled out for a push on Celtic's Chinese defender Du Wei and Alex Williams' goal didn't count because a teammate was offside.
But Clyde went ahead in the 32nd minute. Although Brighton missed Eddie Malone's left-wing cross, the ball came to the unmarked Bryson who headed home from 6m
Four minutes later, Brighton went down after Du Wei tugged his shirt but goalkeeper Artur Boruc made a stunning one-handed save to stop Steven O'Donnell's penalty.
From the corner, however, Clyde went 2-0 up when O'Donnell's flag kick came to Malone who volleyed home.
It could easily have been 3-0 early in the second half when Brighton weaved past Paul Telfer but he shot too high with just Boruc to beat.
Then Bryson crossed from the right and O'Donnell's header from 10m beat Boruc but hit the post.
Celtic finally hit back seven minutes from time when Clyde only half cleared a long through ball which dropped to Maciej Zurawski who scored with a low, right-foot shot from the edge of the area.
Sunday's other cup game between Dundee and Stranraer kicked off later.
Division one leader St. Mirren outplayed Motherwell 3-0 with two strikes from on loan midfielder Charlie Adam and first division club, Airdrie, won 4-3 at Dunfermline after being 2-0 and 3-2 down.
But 31-time winner Rangers outplayed division two Peterhead 5-0 with new signing Kris Boyd scoring a hat trick on his debut.
Real Madrid drew 0-0 with Villarreal, keeping the ailing powerhouse in sixth place.
Madrid lies 13 points behind leader FC Barcelona, which beat crosstown rival Espanyol 2-1 on Saturday for its 11th straight league win and a club record 15th in all competitions.
The 29-time league champion has won just one of four league games under coach Juan Ramon Lopez Caro, who replaced the dismissed Vanderlei Luxemburgo last month to become the team's fifth coach in the last 2 1/2 years.
"We have to demand more because Real Madrid should win games. That's why we're feeling annoyed," Lopez Caro told news agency Efe. "Madrid was well organized, looking to attack. It was a good game but we lacked a little in front of goal."
Madrid lost striker Ronaldo, who was playing his first game of 2006, in the 33rd minute of the game at El Madrigal stadium with what appeared to be a recurrence of the right calf injury, forcing him to miss Tuesday's Copa del Rey match at Athletic Bilbao.
Ronaldo said he had asked to be taken off.
"Little by little, the same area felt heavier and I felt a sharp pain," Ronaldo said. "They'll do some tests tomorrow to find out how bad it is, although I hope it's less than the first one."
Villarreal, which has never beaten Madrid in 13 league games, stayed in fifth place.
In other 18th-round games, forward Antonito Ramiro's equalizer earned Racing Santander a 1-1 draw at second-place Osasuna, ending the home team's perfect record at its stadium in the league this season.
Third-place Valencia drew 0-0 on its visit to Atletico Madrid and extended its unbeaten run to seven games.
AC Milan beat Parma 4-3 and moved ahead of rival Inter Milan into second place in Serie A.
Milan led 3-1 at halftime and won despite allowing two second-half goals by Parma's Marco Marchionni, a player mentioned frequently in transfer speculation.
Inter Milan drew 0-0 at Siena, halting its six-match winning streak.
Juventus leads the league with 49 points after it beat Palermo 2-1 on Saturday on two goals by Adrian Mutu. Milan is next with 40 points, followed by Inter with 39 and Fiorentina, which drew 1-1 at Reggina on Saturday, with 37.
"It's not over yet but Juve is looking very strong. We'll do our best and hope they make some errors," Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf told Italy's Sky TV.
Milan fell behind early when goalkeeper Dida failed to control a corner kick, letting defender Paolo Cannavaro score an easy goal in the 24th.
But Milan rallied with three goals in 10 minutes: an own-goal by Parma's Giuseppe Cardone off a Kaka cross equalized in the 27th, former Parma forward Alberto Gilardino headed in an Andriy Shevchenko cross in the 29th for his 12th goal this season, and Kaka connected from within the penalty arc in the 37th.
Marchionni pulled Parma within 3-2 in the 70th, beating Dida with a low shot after getting by Milan's porous defense. Shevchenko re-established Milan's two-goal lead in the 81st off a cross from Manuel Rui Costa but Marchionni closed Parma within one again by dribbling through Milan's defense in the 85th.
"It's flattering to hear, but I've always said I plan on staying with Parma until June. This team needs all its players," Marchionni said of the transfer speculation. His contract with Parma is up in June.
Parma coach Mario Beretta was ejected for dissent in the 90th.
Ricardo Quaresma scored a first-half goal and FC Porto beat Boavista 1-0 on Sunday to extend its lead to six points.
Quaresma headed home a free kick in the 22nd minute, one of several opportunities created out of Porto's clear tactical dominance.
Porto improved to 40 points while Nacional was held to a 2-2 draw at home by Setubal on Friday, dropping it into a second-place tie with Benfica with 34 points.
Benfica kept pace with a 2-0 victory over Pacos de Ferreira on Sunday, capitalizing an own-goal by Joao Duarte from a pass by Benfica's Nelson in the ninth minute. Striker Geovanni added an insurance goal in the 66th in a match that saw the debut of recently acquired goalkeeper goalie Moretto for Lisbon side.
An 88th-minute goal by Ieroklis Stoltidis gave Olympiakos Piraeus a 1-0 victory at Ionikos and extended its lead atop the first division to three points.
The victory improved Olympiakos to 39 points from 15 games. Second-place AEK Athens drew 0-0 at Xanthi.
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