Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka gave new manager Guus Hiddink the perfect welcome as his hat-trick clinched a 3-1 win over Watford in the FA Cup fifth round on Saturday.
Hiddink doesn’t officially take charge until today after replacing sacked Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari earlier this week, but the Dutchman was watching from the Vicarage Road stands alongside owner Roman Abramovich as Anelka’s late treble denied Championship strugglers Watford a famous victory.
Hornet striker Tamas Priskin had threatened to give Hiddink a headache when he chipped the hosts ahead. But Anelka equalized in the 75th minute, struck again two minutes later and put the result beyond doubt in stoppage time.
PHOTO: AFP
Watford took the lead in the 69th minute as Priskin beat Chelsea’s offside trap and dinked a cool finish that deflected over Petr Cech and looped into the net.
But Anelka saved Hiddink from an embarrassing introduction to English soccer. The France striker scored the equalizer in the 75th minute with a bicycle kick from Frank Lampard’s corner.
With Watford on the back foot, Ashley Cole lofted in a cross toward Anelka, whose header bounced once before beating Scott Loach. Anelka confirmed Chelsea’s place in the quarter-finals with a low finish in the final moments.
Anelka insisted the change of managers was never going to destablize the team.
“We are still strong. Even at a goal down we are capable to come back and win the game. Now we have to do it in the league,” Anelka said. “The most important thing is not changing the manager, it is to win. We did that, so it is good.”
Elsewhere, a stoppage-time equalizer from Christopher Samba prevented Blackburn Rovers’ miserable season from taking another turn for the worse and denied Coventry City a memorable FA Cup upset.
A dramatic tie ended with Samba firing in from 10m in a frantic goalmouth scramble to secure a 2-2 draw for Sam Allardyce’s relegation-threatened side.
Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz had ensured the perfect start for his side at Ewood Park, fastening on to a Samba flick-on before finding the bottom corner after just two minutes.
Coventry were rewarded for a much-improved performance after the interval with goals from Aron Gunnarsson and Michael Doyle. That got them to within seconds of what would have been a deserved victory, only for them to be denied by Samba.
Hull City were also taken to a replay by Championship opposition after coming from behind to draw 1-1 with Sheffield United.
Sheffield United finished the afternoon frustrated having taken the lead against Hull through Greg Halford, who headed in a sixth minute cross from David Cotterill.
Kamil Zayatte got the Premiership club back on level terms 10 minutes before the interval when he converted Andy Dawson’s cross and that was how it finished.
Fulham avoided becoming the latest victims of giant-killers Swansea City despite being outplayed for long periods in a 1-1 draw with the side that eliminated holders Portsmouth in the last round.
Roy Hodgson’s men took the lead through a fortunate Garry Monk own-goal in the first half, but Swansea were worthy of at least the equalizer delivered by Trinidad and Tobago striker Jason Scotland.
Fulham had reason to be grateful for another fine display from Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, without whom the Premiership side would almost certainly have joined Portsmouth on the Cup scrapheap.
The all-Premier League clash between West Ham United and Middlesbrough also went to a replay, with the on-form Hammers obliged to conjure up a late equalizer from Congolese defender Herita Ilunga.
Middlesbrough’s first-half display belied their lowly league position and they fully deserved to claim a 22nd-minute lead, England wide man Stewart Downing heading in Gary O’Neil’s cross at the back post.
But Ilunga popped up in the Boro box with seven minutes left to claim an equalizer West Ham just about deserved.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures