Reading 2, Aston Villa 4
A second half comeback by Aston Villa courtesy of a John Carew hat trick saw the Premier League club turn around a two-goal first half deficit to Reading in Sunday’s FA Cup quarterfinal at the Madejski Stadium.
A few carefully selected words from Villa boss Martin O’Neill seemed to do the trick at halftime. Villa were quick out of the blocks in the second half and had pulled one back with just over a minute gone after the break, when Stuart Downing cut the ball back to Carlos Cuellar who missed it leaving Ashley Young to pounce and blast it in at the far post.
Not long after that, Carew got on the end of a another Downing cross to head past Reading keeper Adam Federici and level the scores.
Villa’s second half display showed they could step up to the challenge and raise their game.
In extra time Carew converted a penalty to complete his hat trick.
“If you are going to lose a game, that is how you lose it,” said Reading manager Brian McDermott in an interview with the BBC.
“We played really well in the first half and knew if we could keep it tight for 15 minutes in the second half we’d have a chance but that didn’t happen.”
“But I am proud of every single one of our players and it is just a shame we couldn’t get through for our fans.”
“It was a great spell by us just after halftime. The team showed such great character,” said Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill.
“We needed to do something because we had played so meekly in the first half.”
“I didn’t need to say much at halftime because we have some fine players and they knew how second best we were in the first half.”
Chelsea 2, Stoke 0
John Terry closed out a Chelsea win, sinking Stoke, as the Blues reached the semifinals of the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge.
Terry, the Chelsea skipper, was booed by his owns fans in England’s victory over Egypt last Wednesday.
Frank Lampard opened the scoring with a 20-yard pile driver that deflected in just after the half hour mark.
Stoke briefly threatened from set pieces but generally failed to impose their physicality on Chelsea.
Chelsea look to have their form back on track after defeats at Man City and Inter Milan and are favorites to win the FA Cup.
“[The booing from away supporters] is happening and John’s just getting on with the situation,” said Chelsea’s assistant manager Ray Wilkins.
“I’m not too happy about it, but there’s nothing I can do. He’s dealing with the situation in the only way he can—committing himself to the cause, and that was another superb performance from him.”
“If John does well in the World Cup and wins it, he’ll come back a hero,” said Stoke manager Tony Pulis.
“As for the game, we’ve knocked Arsenal and Man City out of the FA Cup and to pull Chelsea out of the hat at Stamford Bridge was a difficult tie.”
Elsewhere in the Premier League, Arsenal beat Burnley with goals from Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott, and Andrey Arshavin. Manchester United’s victory over the Wolves has taken them to the top of the table, two points better than Chelsea.
