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| March 11, 2003 | Tuesday | Muharram 7, 1424 |
Southampton book semifinal berth
SOUTHAMPTON (England) March 10: Southampton beat first division Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 on Sunday to reach the FA Cup semifinals for the first time since 1986.
Playmaker Chris Marsden opened the scoring with an overhead kick 11 minutes after the interval following a corner in an exciting quarterfinal at St Mary’s.
Southampton went two up when Wolves captain Paul Butler put the ball in his own net in the 81st minute after a teasing cross from the right by Jo Tessem which striker James Beattie missed when he looked like scoring.
Wolves midfielder Keith Andrews suffered a broken ankle minutes after the first goal and was replaced by Alex Rae.
Saints, whose only victory in the competition came in 1976 when they were in the former second division and upset Manchester United, joined first division sides Sheffield United and Watford in Monday’s semifinal draw.
Semifinal lineup:
Arsenal or Chelsea v Sheffield United; Southampton v Watford.
ROME: Juventus maintained their three-point lead over Inter Milan at the top of Serie A on Sunday as a goal by French striker David Trezeguet gave them a 1-0 win over a 10-man Udinese at the Friuli stadium.
Juve coach Marcello Lippi left the French striker, who finished last season as Serie A’s top scorer but has been struggling for form after returning from a knee injury, on the bench to start with a strike partnership consisting of Marco Di Vaio and Marcelo Zalayeta.
Despite early pressure, the reigning Italian champions were unable to break the deadlock in an arid first half, coming closest in the 12th minute when Udinese keeper Morgan De Sanctis blocked a Zalayeta header from close range.
The balance of the match, however, changed in the 61st minute when midfielder Giampiero Pinzi was red-carded for a tackle on Juve’s Edgar Davids.
Lippi brought on Trezeguet for Zalayeta and added Chilean striker Marcelo Salas to bolster his attack as Udinese desperately tried to close out the match.
But in the 84th minute, left winger Gianluca Zambrotta stole the ball from Udinese striker Roberto Muzzi and sent in a low cross for Trezeguet to tip, right-footed, past De Sanctis.
The win means Juventus have 54 points with second-placed Inter Milan, who beat Bologna 2-1 on Saturday, on 51.
AC Milan remain a distant third on 48 points after their match with fifth-placed Chievo at the San Siro stadium finished goalless.
Chievo beat Milan in their previous league meeting this season in Verona. With his side in urgent need of a win to put pressure on Juve and Inter, Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti abandoned his usual single-striker formation to deploy both Filippo Inzaghi and Andriy Shevchenko in attack.
Yet while the home side enjoyed the lion’s share of possession, they could not find a way past Chievo’s alert keeper Cristiano Lupatelli, who pulled off a series of remarkable saves to keep the scores level.
In the first minute of injury time Milan wasted their best opportunity to win the game. Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf lashed the ball against the post and the rebound fell to playmaker Rui Costa, alone in front of goal.
But the Portuguese international flicked his shot wide for Milan to record their third consecutive draw at the San Siro stadium.
At the other end of Serie A, Juventus’s city rivals Torino enjoyed only their third win of the season, and their first since October, as a 12th-minute penalty by striker Marco Ferrante gave them an unexpected 1-0 victory over Reggina.
The result failed to drag Torino off the bottom of the table and pushed the southerners back into the relegation zone.
Fellow strugglers Empoli improved their prospects of avoiding the drop with a 3-1 win over Piacenza. They are now two points below 11th-placed Brescia, who extended their unbeaten run in Serie A to 12 games with a 1-1 draw at Como.
Results:
Atalanta 0 Parma 0
Como 1 Brescia 1
Empoli 3 Piacenza 1
AC Milan 0 Chievo Verona 0
Modena 1 Perugia 1
Torino 1 Reggina 0
Udinese 0 Juventus 1
Malaga 3 Athletic Bilbao 0
Rayo Vallecano 1 Celta Vigo 0
Real Mallorca 2 Real Betis 1
Real Sociedad 3 Alaves 1
Recreativo Huelva 0 Espanyol 0
Sevilla 2 Osasuna 0
—Reuters
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