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Chelsea rallies for 2-2 draw

March 11, 2013 - 19:36 By Korea Herald
LONDON (AP) ― Eden Hazard and Ramires scored second-half goals as defending Chelsea rallied for a 2-2 tie at Manchester United and forced a replay to determine which team will play Manchester City in the semifinals.

Coming off Champions League elimination against Real Madrid on Tuesday, Manchester United built a 2-0 lead on goals by Javier Hernandez in the fifth minute and Wayne Rooney in the 11th. Hazard began the comeback when he scored in the 59th minute, and Ramires tied it nine minutes later.

“The emotions and the intensity of Tuesday night took their toll on some of the players,” United manager Alex Ferguson said.

Chelsea was coming off a 1-0 loss Thursday at Steaua Bucharest in the first leg of its third-round matchup in the Europa League.
Chelsea’s Demba Ba (left) vies with Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea (right) and defender Rio Ferdinand on Sunday. (AFP-Yonhap News)

Millwall was held to a 0-0 tie by visiting Blackburn in an all-second tier matchup, and it will have a replay to decide who faces Wigan. The semifinals are April 13 and 14.

In the Premier League, third-place Tottenham (16-7-6) wasted a second-half lead in a 3-2 loss at Liverpool, wasting a chance to extend its two-point lead over Chelsea (15-6-7). Newcastle moved nine points above the relegation zone with a come-from-behind 2-1 win at home over Stoke.

At Anfield, Luis Suarez put Liverpool ahead in the 21st with his 50th goal for the club, but Jan Vertonghen scored in the 45th and 53rd minutes, set up both times by Gareth Bale.

Spain

Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice to give Real Madrid a 2-1 win at Celta Vigo.

Ronaldo scored from a loose ball in the 61st minute. After Iago Aspas tied the score against the run of play two minutes later, Ronaldo converted a penalty kick in the 72nd following a foul on Kaka.

Ronaldo has 26 league goals this season, second only to Lionel Messi’s 40 for Barcelona.

Defending champion Real Madrid (17-5-4) is 13 points back of Barcelona (23-2-2) and moved into second place as Atletico Madrid (18-5-3) lost 1-0 at home to Real Sociedad.

Italy

Juventus opened a nine-point lead in the Italian league with 10 games left, beating visiting Catania 1-0 while second-place Napoli lost 2-0 at Chievo Verona.

Emanuele Giaccherini scored in the first minute of second-half stoppage time for Juventus following a cross from Paul Pogba, the 19-year-old French forward let go by Manchester United after last season.

In Verona, Chievo got goals from Boukary Drame in the 12th minute and Cyril Thereau in the 43rd. A penalty kick by Napoli’s Edinson Cavani was saved by goalkeeper Christian Puggioni in the 13th.

Germany

Eintracht Frankfurt failed to score for a fifth straight match, tying 0-0 at Hannover and dropping into fifth place in the Bundesliga.

Artjoms Rudnevs scored with a spectacular volley in the 50th minute to give Hamburg a 1-0 win at Stuttgart, which has lost seven of its past nine games and has fallen to 14th. Hamburg moved up to sixth.

Scotland

Hibernian was denied a goal when a free kick went over the line but was not credited in an Edinburgh derby against Hearts that ended 0-0. Leigh Griffiths’ shot went off the underside of the crossbar and the ball bounced well over the line.