City shocked by Villa, Terry plays in Chelsea romp

Updated September 26, 2012 08:29:39

Manchester City suffered a surprise exit from the League Cup as Aston Villa clinched a 4-2 third round win at Eastlands, while Chelsea welcomed back controversial captain John Terry with a 6-0 rout of Wolves.

City manager Roberto Mancini made 11 changes from the side held to a 1-1 draw by Arsenal on Sunday and the Premier League champions were not able to win with their stand-ins.

Italian striker Mario Balotelli fired City ahead in the 27th minute, but Villa equalised in the 59th minute when their former midfielder Gareth Barry deflected the ball into his own net.

City regained the lead when Aleksandar Kolarov clipped a free-kick past Shay Given in the 64th minute, but Gabriel Agbonlahor restored parity six minutes later.

And in the sixth minute of extra-time, Agbonlahor fired in a shot that City goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon could not hold and Charles N'Zogbia was on hand to slot home before Agbonalahor completed the upset with seven minutes remaining.

Roberto Mancini's side have now won just two of its seven matches this season and conceded 14 goals in that run.

At Stamford Bridge, Terry skippered Chelsea just hours after appearing at the second day of the FA disciplinary hearing into charges he racially abused QPR defender Anton Ferdinand last October.

It took Chelsea just four minutes to welcome Terry back as his central defensive partner Gary Cahill headed home from Juan Mata's free-kick.

Ryan Bertrand doubled Chelsea's lead with a close-range finish four minutes later and Mata increased the hosts' advantage when he slotted home in the 17th minute.

Oriol Romeu bagged his first Chelsea goal with a penalty after Victor Moses was fouled by Wolves goalkeeper Dorus de Vries in the 53rd minute.

A Fernando Torres header five minutes later piled on the misery for Wolves, who conceded for the sixth time when Victor Moses, a signing from Wigan last month, claimed his first goal for Chelsea in the 71st minute.

"We wanted John to start," Chelsea assistant manager Eddie Newton said. "We had a phone call saying he was making his way back from the FA nice and early.

"We'd covered all the bases, all the scenarios, and the best one happened."

Leeds caused another upset as the Championship club defeated Everton 2-1 at Elland Road.

Toffees boss David Moyes made six changes to the side that beat Swansea 3-0, but his reserves were not up to the task.

Aidan White rocked Everton in the fourth minute as the Republic of Ireland under 21 international weaved his way past several challenges before curling a shot past Jan Mucha.

Everton squandered several chances to equalise before Rodolph Austin poked home Danny Pugh's pass in the 70th minute and Sylvain Distin's 81st minute goal was too late to spark a comeback.

"The atmosphere and the rain made it a real old fashioned cup tie," Leeds boss Neil Warnock said. "We deserved it and we should have scored two or three other goals."

Wigan recovered from a goal down to claim an impressive 4-1 win at West Ham.

Modibo Maiga's powerful strike put West Ham ahead in the seventh minute, but Wigan striker Mauro Boselli equalised from close-range in the 14th minute.

Ivan Ramis blasted his first goal for the Latics from long range in the 38th minute.

Boselli struck again four minutes before the break and Jordi Gomez added an 84th-minute penalty.

Southampton eased to a 2-0 victory over Championship strugglers Sheffield Wednesday at St Mary's thanks to two goals from striker Jay Rodriguez.

Sunderland saw off League One outfit Milton Keynes Dons 2-0 despite playing over half the match with 10 men following Lee Cattermole's red card.

Craig Gardner and James McClean got the goals for the Black Cats.

Swansea avoided an embarrassing exit at League One side Crawley as Michael Laudrup's team fought back to win 3-2.

AFP

Tags: sport, soccer, english-premier, england

First posted September 26, 2012 08:23:09

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Langerak plays key role in German Cup win

Updated May 13, 2012 11:32:12

Australian goalkeeper Mitch Langerak came off the bench in the 34th minute to play a leading role in Borussia Dortmund's 5-2 thrashing of arch-rivals Bayern Munich in the German Cup final in Berlin.

Langerak was summonsed after Dortmund number one Roman Weidenfeller twice clattered into Bayern striker Mario Gomez, the second incident coming in the 23rd minute and resulting in a penalty for the Bavarian side.

Dutch star Arjen Robben slotted home from the spot and with Weidenfeller no longer able to continue, former Melbourne Victory goalkeeper Langerak was called into action.

He was beaten by French international Franck Ribery midway through the second half but the goal made little difference as Dortmund added the German Cup title to the Bundesliga trophy it lifted last week.

It was Dortmund's fifth straight win over Bayern, who were at full strength ahead of the Champions League final against Chelsea next week, as Polish star Robert Lewandowski notched a hat-trick in the showpiece event.

Shinji Kagawa fired Dortmund into a third minute lead after a double defensive blunder by Luiz Gustavo, before Robben's spot-kick levelled proceedings in front of more than 75,000 fans at Berlin's famous Olympic stadium.

Mats Hummels' penalty in the 41st minute restored Dortmund's lead and its top scorer Lewandowski struck either side of the break and again after Bayern winger Ribery briefly cut the deficit with his sensational low drive in the 75th minute.

"We at Dortmund could not have imagined a better final," the club's beaming coach Juergen Klopp told reporters.

Dortmund captain Sebastian Kehl lifted the trophy to mark his side's first German Cup triumph since 1989 as his team-mates cheered wildly while German president Joachim Gauck was sucked into the celebrations.

"We were ice cold in our execution, scored great goals. It's difficult to put into words what we're feeling at this moment," said Klopp after his first German Cup victory as a coach.

Dortmund, which has now won the Cup three times, also beat Bayern in the race for the league title, earning a record 81 points as it clinched its second successive Bundesliga crown earlier this month.

"We should not be complaining as our overall defensive behaviour was catastrophic," Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes said.

"We have to accept that we did not deserve to win. But now we have a different target in our sights and until the Champions League final we will recover from the shock."

"That will be a completely different game," Heynckes added.

It took Dortmund only three minutes to send its yellow-clad fans into a frenzy when Jakub Blaszczykowski pounced after Gustavo twice gave away possession and cut the ball back to Kagawa, who scored on what could be his last game for the club.

The hugely gifted 23-year-old Japan international, who said he would decide whether to move to the English Premier League after the final, tapped home from close range with Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson watching from the stands.

Dortmund keeper Weidenfeller brought down Gomez in the 24th minute and Robben converted from the spot to make amends for his penalty miss in their league clash last month.

But any hopes of a confidence-boosting result ahead of the Champions League final in Munich were undermined when Bayern reject Hummels scored with a penalty in the 41st after defender Jerome Boateng brought down Marcel Schmelzer.

Lewandowski then struck in first half-stoppage time, picking up a Kagawa pass to beat goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

The Poland forward, who notched 22 league goals this season, was again on target in the 58th minute as Dortmund ripped through an error-prone Bayern defence almost at will.

Ribery struck 15 minutes from time after Gomez earlier hit the bar but yet another Bayern mistake, with Neuer dropping the ball in the box, led to Lewandowski's third goal from an easy header for a memorable end to Dortmund's successful season.

ABC/Reuters

Tags: sport, soccer, germany

First posted May 13, 2012 09:09:42

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Manager plays down Paartalu shift talk

Updated May 03, 2012 16:45:49

Midfielder Erik Paartalu will be a key part of Brisbane's shot at an unprecedented A-League three-peat despite rumours he has an escape clause in his contract linked to former coach Ange Postecoglou.

Postecoglou, who walked out on the Roar soon after guiding the club to its second successive A-League title over Perth Glory last month, will coach Melbourne Victory next season.

The hottest rumour doing the A-League rounds is that Paartalu had a get-out clause included in his latest contract with Brisbane allowing him to leave if Postecoglou was not coaching the club.

But Paartalu's manager David O'Keefe, whose Sydney-based agency Football Focus International (FFI) also acts for Postecoglou, said the defensive midfielder would see out the final year of his contract with the Roar.

"Ange and Erik are very close and there's a high regard there for each other but there's no written clause in his contract to suggest he could get out if Ange moved on," O'Keefe said.

"There's lots of rumours flying around this week about (Brisbane) players who still have a year to go on their contracts.

"Erik won't be the Darius Boyd of the A-League.

"I'm not saying it won't happen and that he may not end up at the Victory at some stage but that won't be in the next 12 months."

O'Keefe said Paartalu, who turned down "stupid money" from Korea (2011) and China (2012) to develop his game under Postecoglou, had recently attracted interest from European and Japanese clubs who were monitoring his progress.

"At this stage, there's interest from a club in Europe and I'm also looking at opportunities in Japan but he'll be playing for the Roar next season," O'Keefe said.

Paartalu, who turned 26 on Thursday, is hoping to push his international prospects if selected to play for the Socceroos against Denmark in Copenhagen early next month.

AAP

Tags: a-league, soccer, sport, brisbane-4000, qld, australia

First posted May 03, 2012 16:37:22

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Arbib plays down Aussie World Cup hopes

Posted May 21, 2011 22:05:00

Federal Sports Minister Mark Arbib has urged caution about Australia getting a second chance to bid for World Cup 2022 after FIFA investigates corruption allegations.

FIFA's ethics committee is probing claims that executive members were paid bribes of $US1.5 million ($1.39 million) during the bidding process for the 2022 tournament.

Qatar went on to win the December ballot, with Australia's $45 million bid achieving just one vote.

The FIFA investigation has sparked belief that the bidding process could be rerun.

However, Senator Arbib urged caution.

"Certainly I think everybody is very cautious about what lies ahead," he told reporters in Sydney on Saturday.

"We're not getting our hopes up that there will be a decision to have a new ballot.

"I don't think we should get our hopes up yet.

"We need to have a chance for these allegations to be heard."

Senator Arbib described FIFA's investigation as a "positive step" and said its ethics committee would convene on June 1.

"Australia would have put on the best ever World Cup, there's no doubt about it," he said.

"We have the infrastructure, we have the people and certainly there was great disappointment across the country when we weren't successful."

A resubmission of Australia's bid should not cost any additional money, Senator Arbib added.

"It shouldn't cost us any extra money ... all the work has been done in terms of scoping the stadium, all the specifications, the technical work is complete."

A British House of Commons committee first heard allegations that two African FIFA executive committee members were bribed to vote for Qatar.

The Gulf nation later issued a statement denying "serious and baseless" allegations and saying they will "remain unproven because they are false".

-AAP

Tags: sport, football, world-cup, australia, qatar

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