Kayode Odejayi headed in the winner and Barnsley knocked Chelsea out of the FA Cup with a 1-0 victory to reach the semi-final on Saturday, three weeks after the Tykes ousted Liverpool.
After Portsmouth won 1-0 at Manchester United, Odejayi's 66th minute winner made sure that none of the traditional big four of English soccer will be in the last four. Arsenal were beaten 4-0 by Manchester United in the previous round.
Barnsley, who won 2-1 at Liverpool to reach the quarter-final, are only four points above the relegation zone in the League Championship and in danger of going down to League One.
"I can't believe it. We went to Anfield and we put on a show and came away with a result and everybody thought we couldn't do it again," said Barnsley manager Simon Davey. "We had a game plan that obviously worked. I'm speechless at the moment. I can't believe we've really done it. We're in the semi-final of the cup, I've never been to Wembley."
A penalty kick from Sulley Muntari gave Portsmouth victory over Manchester United after the Red Devils had one goalkeeper injured and another sent off.
Muntari fired the 78th-minute penalty past Rio Ferdinand. The center-back went in goal after substitute goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak, who went on for the injured Edwin van der Sar at half-time, was sent off for hauling down Milan Baros.
The drama came after United missed enough chances to be three goals ahead with top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo the main culprit.
Portsmouth's victory at Old Trafford was their first there since 1957 but the performance of referee Martin Atkinson, who refused to award the home team an early penalty when Sylvain Distin barged Ronaldo over, incensed United manager Alex Ferguson.
"It's absolutely ridiculous," Ferguson said. "Managers get sacked because of things like that and he's going to referee a game next week."
"He's not doing his job properly and he needs to be assessed. I'm assessed as a manager, players are assessed, referees should be assessed properly by the right people. That performance today should not be accepted by our game," Ferguson said.
Pompey had lost their previous seven visits to Old Trafford.
Kuszczak was sent off for bringing down Baros as he went for an open goal. With Van der Sar already off, that meant United did not have another goalkeeper to replace him so Ferdinand went between the posts.
He was unable to stop Muntari's expertly taken low spot kick, however, even though he dived the right way.
In Premier League games, Liverpool outplayed Newcastle 3-0 to move within two points of third place Chelsea, Reading climbed out of the relegation zone and up to 13th with a 2-0 victory over Manchester City and Blackburn were held 1-1 at home by Fulham.
Jermaine Pennant and Fernando Torres scored two goals in three minutes just before half time in Liverpool's victory over Newcastle and Steven Gerrard added a third in the 51st.
The victory for Rafa Benitez' team strengthens their fourth place and now the Reds trail Chelsea by two points although the Blues have two games in hand.
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
Former Formosa Dreamers player Ilkan Karaman was killed in a traffic accident in Datca, Turkey, Turkish media reported yesterday. He was 34. The former Turkish national team player was reportedly hit by a car, the driver of which was allegedly drunk, while he was standing on a sidewalk, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported. Karaman and his friends were on their way to the beach town of Dalaman to go scuba diving when they stopped at a gas station to buy gasoline, it reported. Karaman was hit by the car while waiting on a sidewalk as his friends were buying gasoline, it
ANKLE PROBLEM: Taiwan’s Ye Hong-wei and Lee Chia-hsin had a disappointing end to their tournament after an injury forced them out of their mixed doubles semi-final Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying on Friday was knocked out in the women’s singles quarter-finals at her last Taipei Open. The world No. 3 lost 21-18, 16-21, 22-24 to Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia in a match that stretched 68 minutes at the Taipei Arena. Despite her higher ranking, Tai said she was not too sad about the loss, given her struggle with a lingering knee injury. “Wins and losses are just part of the game. Actually, I think I’m going to lose every single match considering my condition now,” said the five-time champion of the Super 300 event, who has announced plans
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
RSS