LONDON, 3 December 2004 — Manchester United beat Arsenal 1-0 to line up a League Cup semifinal with Chelsea, while Liverpool will take on Watford after a 4-3 penalty shootout win over Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday.
United’s David Bellion scored after less than 20 seconds at Old Trafford in a tense and sometimes ill-tempered game between two second-string sides. Another French forward, Florent Sinama-Pongolle, was Liverpool’s man of the night, converting an extra-time penalty to make it 1-1 after a Jermain Defoe strike, and then scoring the decisive final spot-kick of the shootout. The semifinals will be played over two legs in January, with the final at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on Feb. 27.
United’s win came five weeks after their first team ended Arsenal’s record 49-match unbeaten league run at Old Trafford, triggering a collapse in form from which the champions have yet to recover. October’s 2-0 victory also led to the ‘Battle of the Buffet’ in which snacks were reportedly thrown at United manager Alex Ferguson in the players’ tunnel, adding to a long-standing enmity between the two sides.
The latest encounter swung United’s way after kickoff when Bellion’s seemingly harmless shot straight at Manuel Almunia bounced off the Spanish keeper’s knee and into the net.
Arsenal, fielding six teenagers and four other outfield players under the age of 22, struggled to respond and could easily have been 2-0 down after a Kieran Richardson shot which Almunia blocked.
Solid at the back, United kept up the pressure after the break, with Arsenal’s Dutch forward Robin Van Persie and Richardson being booked after an ugly challenge and a retaliation.
United’s win teed up a re-match with the Premier League leaders, who beat them 1-0 at Stamford Bridge on the opening day of the season. Spurs, beaten on penalties at this stage last season by Middlesbrough, were almost at full-strength against a second string Liverpool and led through substitute Defoe’s strike on 108 minutes.
