The Hindu : Sport / Football : Blackburn, Watford enter semifinals

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Tuesday, Mar 13, 2007
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Blackburn, Watford enter semifinals

Blackburn: Aaron Mokoena piled the pressure on Manchester City manager Stuart Pearce as 10-man Blackburn booked its place in the FA Cup semifinals with a 2-0 win at Ewood Park on Sunday.

South African midfielder Mokoena's first goal since joining Rovers from Belgian club Genk in January 2005 — followed by Matt Derbyshire's stoppage time strike — ruined Pearce's second anniversary in charge of City. City rarely looked like reaching its first semifinals for 26 years once it conceded the first goal and the visiting side was fortunate that it avoided a heavier defeat in a bruising encounter.

Pearce under pressure

City's fourth defeat in five games did little to quell the speculation surrounding Pearce's position following a dreadful league run which has left the club locked in a fight for Premiership survival.

Despite playing against 10 men for the final 22 minutes, City failed to score for the third time in five outings and entertain title-chasing Chelsea on Wednesday.

The results: English FA Cup Quarterfinals: Blackburn Rovers 2 (Mokoena, Derbyshire) bt Manchester City 0; Plymouth Argyle 0 lost to Watford 1 (Bouazza).

Spanish league: Gimnastic 1 (Portillo) bt Sevilla 0; Celta Vigo 1 (Angel) drew with Athletic Bilbao 1 (Aduritz); Getafe 1 (Guiza) drew with Recreativo 1 (Uche); Racing Santander 1 (Garay-pen) drew with Espanyol 1 (Riera); Real Betis 1 (Assuncao-pen) drew with Real Zaragoza 1 (Milito); Real Sociedad 3 (Savio, Kovacevic, Prieto) bt Mallorca 1 (Ibagaza); Atletico Madrid 2 (Galletti, Mista) bt Deportivo 0; Osasuna 1 (Punal-pen) drew with Valencia 1 (Morientes).

Italian league: Inter Milan 2 (Cruz, Ibrahimovic) bt AC Milan 1 (Ronaldo); Atalanta 1 (Defendi) drew with Parma 1 (Coly); Chievo 1 (Sammarco-pen) drew with Messina 1 (Rigano-pen); Empoli 2 (Pratali, Almiron) drew with Livorno 2 (Rezaei, Lucarelli); Palermo 1 (Cavani) drew with Fiorentina 1 (Mutu); Reggina 2 (Tedesco, Foggia) lost to Lazio 3 (Manfredini, Pandev, Makinwa); Siena 0 lost to Ascoli 1 (Bertotto-own goal). — Agencies

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