John Terry's fourth-minute strike put Chelsea into the FA Cup semifinals, earning a 1-0 victory over Newcastle on Wednesday to keep the Blues on course for their first league-cup double.
The England centerback's goal at Stamford Bridge sent the Blues into the final four along with Liverpool and West Ham.
Liverpool reached the semifinals by beating Birmingham City 7-0 on Tuesday and West Ham made it by winning 2-1 at Manchester City on Monday. The other quarterfinal was to be played yesterday between Charlton and Middlesbrough.
PHOTO: AFP
With a 12-point lead, Chelsea is in position to win its second straight league title and is chasing its first FA Cup crown since 2000. By contrast, Newcastle, which is 12th in the 20-club Premier League, has not won a domestic trophy since the 1955 FA Cup and Wednesday's game may have been the final cup game for striker Alan Shearer, who has played 10 years for the Magpies without winning a title.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho made seven changes in his team that was upset 1-0 by struggling Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday.
Newcastle knocked out Chelsea from the competition last season thanks to a fourth-minute Patrick Kluivert goal. After not having conceded a goal in its first three FA Cup games this season, the Magpies fell behind early at Stamford Bridge.
Damien Duff fired in a low corner from the left and Terry got to the ball at the near post before Shearer to score with a first-time, left-footed half volley. The ball struck the boot of Newcastle's Peruvian midfielder Nolberto Solano on the way past goalkeeper Shay Given but was on target anyway.
Newcastle almost equalized in the 17th minute when Chelsea goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini could only parry a powerful left-footed shot from Lee Bowyer. With Shearer about to force home the rebound, Terry recovered to make a perfectly timed tackle in front of an empty net.
Ricardo Carvalho had a great chance to double the lead two minutes before halftime when he connected with a leftwing free kick from Frank Lampard, but volleyed wide of the near post from five meters.
Given thwarted chances by Didier Drogba three times in the second half as Chelsea continued to dominate, and Blues substitute Shaun Wright-Phillips blazed a shot high and wide with just the keeper to beat with five minutes to go.
Newcastle defender Robbie Elliott was sent off with a minute to go for a second yellow card although the second caution for an apparent obstruction of Wright-Phillips appeared a harsh decision.
Goals by Stephen McManus and Shaun Maloney on Wednesday gave Celtic a 2-1 victory over Inverness and moved Gordon Strachan's team 17 points clear in the Scottish title race.
After Polish striker Maciej Zurawski and Japanese midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura both narrowly missed chances, Celtic went ahead in the 36th minute.
Centerback McManus jumped to meet a corner from Nakamura and, although Inverness goalkeeper Mark Brown got his fingertips to his looping header from nine meters he could not stop it going in.
Maloney added the second by converting a free kick with 11 minutes to go. Although Richard Hart replied for Inverness in the 90th, Strachan's team moved even further ahead of second place Hearts, which fired manager Graham Rix on Wednesday citing poor recent results.
When Rix took over from George Burley in November, the Jambos were top of the standings.
Ademola Lookman on Thursday scored on his Atletico Madrid debut in a 5-0 rout of Real Betis Balompie that sent Diego Simeone’s team to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey. David Hancko, Giuliano Simeone, Antoine Griezmann and Thiago Almada also scored for Atletico as they advanced to the last four for the third straight season. Atletico are trying to reach their first Copa final since winning the competition in 2012-2013. Hancko opened the scoring for the visitors in the 12th minute and Giuliano Simeone added to the lead in the 30th, before Lookman got his first goal for Atletico on a fast
SUPERSTAR DELIVERS: Victor Wembanyama scored 29 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to propel the Spurs to a 135-123 victory over the Dallas Mavericks The Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday shook off the early exit of injured star Luka Doncic, rallying without him in the second half for a 119-115 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Austin Reaves, again coming off the bench in his second game back from a 19-game injury absence, scored 13 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, drilling a pair of back-to-back three-pointers to give the Lakers their first lead of the game early in the final frame. “Losing Luka, you know nothing’s going to be easy after that because he does so much for us, but we bonded together,” said
France head coach Fabien Galthie on Thursday lauded his team’s attacking performance after their dazzling 36-14 victory over Ireland in their Six Nations opener. A brace of tries from Louis Bielley-Biarrey and one from mercurial flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert helped France storm into a 29-0 lead before taking their foot off the gas and allowing Ireland back into the match, before winger Theo Attissogbe put some gloss on the victory late on. “In an attacking sense, with the ball, the team played with great accuracy,” Galthie said. “It was one of the most accurate attacking performances in a long time, despite the weather
Italy are finally heading to the World Cup — just not in the sport most people might expect. Amid dark times for the country’s storied, but ailing soccer team, some salvation comes in the form of the Azzurri’s unheralded cricketers after their first-ever qualification for a global tournament. Add Italy to cricketing superpowers like India, Australia, England and South Africa competing at the T20 World Cup starting tomorrow. “Just to be there and playing is the end of 45 years of hard work,” Italian Cricket Federation CEO Luca Bruno Malaspina said. That is a reference to the formation of the sport’s national federation in
RSS