This week played host to the three FA Cup 5th Round replays needed to complete the field for the Quarterfinals. Having played to draws on their own turfs the first time around, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, and Arsenal had to claim victory on the road if they were to continue their run through the cup finals.

Middlesbrough had to come from behind at the Hawthorns to level the score through Australian striker Mark Viduka and then overcame Coca Cola league side West Brom via penalties (5-4).

After jumping out to an early 3 goal lead in the first 10 minutes, Manchester United narrowly defeated EPL newcomers Reading (3-2), blessed by the help of the crossbar in the dying moments to deny any extra-time dramatics.

Coming off a sensational defeat to Chelsea in the Carling Cup Final, Arsenal were looking to the tie with Blackburn Rovers as a chance to keep a trophy run alive. This time Arsene used a mixture of young and old, but Blackburn remained too stubborn and worked hard to cancel out the Gunners.

Then with the game beckoning toward extra-time, substitute, South African striker Benny McCarthy skipped inside past a reshuffled Arsenal backline and fired home an absolute thunderbolt that ended the Gunner dream.

March 10th and 11th will be the dates for the following fixtures:
Middlesbrough vs. Manchester United
Chelsea vs. Tottenham
Blackburn vs. Manchester City
Plymouth vs. Watford    

This entry was posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 11:15 pm and is filed under Soccer World, England. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.