LONDON: Edin Dzeko opened his goalscoring account for Manchester City as the Premier League side scrambled a late equaliser to snatch a 1-1 draw with lowly Notts County in the FA Cup fourth round yesterday.
Bosnian striker Dzeko netted in the 80th minute to rescue City, who were left chasing the game after Neal Bishop headed the Magpies into a shock lead on 59 minutes at Meadow Lane.
City - who have spent more than £300mil on players since their takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008 - are currently 58 places above Notts County, languishing in 18th spot of League One.
But the gulf between Roberto Mancini’s expensively assembled squad and Paul Ince’s side was rarely obvious as a quagmire of a pitch acted as a leveller.
In other fourth round matches, 10-man Arsenal needed a late Cesc Fabregas penalty to overcome Huddersfield 2-1 while Stoke downed Wolves 1-0 to advance to the last 16 of the FA Cup.
In a thrilling encounter at Upton Park, West Ham striker Victor Obinna scored a hat-trick as the Premier League side overcame Nottingham Forest 3-2 to advance to the last 16.
Stoke meanwhile ended Wolves’ FA Cup campaign after defender Robert Huth struck on 81 minutes at Molineux.
At the Emirates, second-half substitute Fabregas scored from the spot on 86 minutes after League One side Huddersfield had fought back bravely from 1-0 down to level in an open encounter.
Fabregas’ winner came after Terriers defender Jamie McCombe flattened Nicklas Bendtner in the area.
The Gunners, who had Sebastien Squillaci sent off just before half-time, had earlier taken the lead through a Peter Clarke own goal on 22 minutes.
Huddersfield hit back through an Alan Lee header on 66 minutes to leave Arsenal facing the unwelcome prospect of a fourth round replay before Fabregas’ late spot-kick saved the day.
Victory came at a cost for Arsenal however, with in-form midfielder Samir Nasri suffering a serious hamstring injury which could rule him out of his team’s Champions League clash with Barcelona on Feb 16.
“It looks a serious hamstring injury and that’s usually three weeks. We have to see whether it’s a grade one or two tear,” Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said.
“It’s big blow for us at the moment. It’s two weeks to that (Barcelona) game and you will soon know if he’s out.
“But he is doubtful. At this important stage of the season to lose bodies is disappointing for us.”
Arsenal, who are challenging on four fronts, have a heavy fixture schedule and face Everton in the Premier League tomorrow.
Wenger admitted that his gamble in playing Nasri yesterday had backfired.
“I have regrets at playing him as the plan was to first to play (Tomas) Rosicky, but we was still too weak and was sick,” Wenger said.
“I took a gamble and it backfired.
“It’s difficult to predict something like that happening. I could have brought him on with 25 minutes left and the same thing could have happened.”
No comments:
Post a Comment