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Rediff.com  » Sports » Arsenal face FA Cup away trip

Arsenal face FA Cup away trip

By Mike Collett
February 17, 2004 10:52 IST
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Holders Arsenal will visit either Liverpool or Portsmouth in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup following the draw made on Monday.

Liverpool were the last team to beat Arsenal in the competition when they came from behind to edge them 2-1 in the 2001 final at Cardiff with two late goals from Michael Owen.

Arsenal have won the cup twice since then and following their 2-1 win over Chelsea in the fifth round on Sunday have now gone 17 matches without defeat in the competition -- the last three all against Premier league opponents this season.

They beat Leeds United 4-1 in the third round and Middlesbrough by the same score before seeing off Chelsea on Sunday.

Arsenal are bidding to become the first team since Blackburn Rovers in 1886 to win the cup three times in succession -- and the first to appear in four successive finals.

They have met Liverpool 15 times in the FA Cup, winning six times, including the finals of 1950 and 1971, drawing four times and losing five.

Their last cup meeting was in the fourth round in 2002 when Arsenal won 1-0 at Highbury with a Dennis Bergkamp goal. Bergkamp was later sent off as were his team mate Martin Keown and Liverpool's Jamie Carragher.

Arsenal have only met Portsmouth three times in the cup, beating them 2-0 in 1932 and 3-2 in 1971 after a 1-1 draw.

Liverpool and Portsmouth drew 1-1 at the weekend and the two sides will replay next Sunday.

LOWER DIVISION

Manchester United, looking to win the cup for the first time since their record setting 10th win in 1999, will play either Fulham or West Ham at Old Trafford.

United inflicted West Ham's record cup defeat when they beat them 6-0 in the fourth round last season -- and United have not lost to Fulham in the cup since 1908. In recent years they have beaten them 1-0 in a fifth round tie in 1999 and 2-1 in a third round tie in 2001.

One lower division team is guaranteed a place in the semi-finals with first division Millwall drawn at home against second division Tranmere Rovers.

Millwall have reached the semi-finals three times in 1900, 1903 and 1937 while Tranmere have never gone further than the quarter-finals, which they have now reached for the third time in five seasons. The two sides have never previously met in the cup.

If Birmingham City overcome Sunderland in their fifth round replay, they will meet another first division side in Sheffield United, who were beaten by Arsenal in the semi-finals last season.

United striker Paul Peschisolido, who scored the only goal in Sunday's fifth round victory over Colchester, said before the draw that it was the one pairing he did not want as his wife Karen Brady is the managing director at Birmingham.

"I hope its not Birmingham," he said, "I can't stand the thought of being asked loads of stupid questions about it by the press."

The matches will take place on the weekend of March 6-7.

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Mike Collett
Source: REUTERS
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