Crystal Palace held Aston Villa to a 2-2 draw in the FA Cup on Sunday to earn a replay for the cash-strapped second-tier club as it searches for a buyer.
Palace were heading into the quarter-finals until Stiliyan Petrov headed in a late equalizer.
Premier League rivals Tottenham and Bolton will also have to play their fifth-round match again after drawing 1-1. The winners will play Fulham, who advanced with a 4-0 victory over fourth-tier Notts County.
The last-eight draw pitted holders Chelsea against either Manchester City or Stoke and Reading or West Brom against Palace or Villa.
The Premier League’s bottom club, Portsmouth, will host Birmingham — unless Pompey go out of business before the weekend of March 6-March 7 as they battle against a High Court liquidation order.
Palace are also enduring financial problems and the club sought bankruptcy protection last month as they tries to clear £30 million (US$47 million) worth of debts.
Palace led twice, through Johnny Ertl’s header and Darren Ambrose’s free kick, but Villa hit back courtesy of headers from James Collins and Petrov — the latter coming in the 87th minute.
But Palace manager Neil Warnock claimed that the officials incorrectly awarded the corner that led to Petrov’s equalizer.
“I am absolutely devastated,” Warnock said. “Their second goal was a disgrace. We have a Premier League referee and we got [assistant] Mr [Trevor] Massey laughing his head off all afternoon with the flag.”
“If you look at it, the goalie saves it and it comes off [Villa striker Nathan] Delfouneso and neither of them wanted to make a decision. They [the officials] wait and wait and wait to see whether they should give it. It’s a disgrace, he should be banned for weeks should Mr Massey. All he can do is smile.”
Notts County, facing a winding-up order like Portsmouth, were the lowest ranking team left in the competition — and the gulf showed at Fulham.
Simon Davies and Bobby Zamora scored to put Fulham in control at half-time and further strikes from Damien Duff and Stefano Okaka completed the rout.
At the Reebok Stadium, goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen kept Bolton’s FA Cup hopes alive by correctly diving to his right to block Tom Huddlestone’s 71st-minute penalty after a handball by Sam Ricketts.
Jermain Defoe had scored for Spurs just 10 minutes earlier. That goal canceled out Kevin Davies’ first-half strike for Bolton.
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