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On Sunday, two more matches of the 30th round were played in the English Premier League. Although the leader did not change after them, there was some intrigue about the first place because London's Chelsea unexpectedly lost, while the closest pursuers in this round managed to win.
Today, Chelsea unexpectedly admitted the superiority of Fulham in the London derby with a score of 1-0 and fell into a sort of pit after the failure in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals. Although no team managed to gain a clear advantage in the first half of the match, Fulham had many more and more realistic opportunities to score, and one of them was taken - in the 17th minute, Luis Boa Morte sent the ball into the goal from the left penalty area. Meanwhile, Chelsea only created one more dangerous opportunity throughout the half, but Damien Duff's shot from 15 meters was blocked by the goalkeeper.
In the second half, after a penalty kick from Fulham, Chelsea took the initiative and managed to score a goal - a breakthrough by Didier Drogba took advantage of a goalkeeper error and sent the ball into the net. However, the goal was disallowed because the player clearly handled the ball. The visitors continued to attack, but their efforts were in vain, and Fulham celebrated a well-deserved victory. By the way, Chelsea ended the match with ten men, as in the last minute of added time, defender William Gallas roughly stopped the opponent and caused a scuffle between players of both clubs.
After this failure, Chelsea's lead over the closest competitors decreased to 12 points. However, the second-placed club, Manchester United, still has a match in hand. Meanwhile, the three unexpected points helped Fulham rise to a safe 14th place.
In another match, Liverpool once again showed that they can score goals. After crushing Fulham 5-1 a few days ago, this time the club, soon to lose the crown of the strongest European club, defeated Newcastle 3-1 and also kept their chances to fight for second place.
The first goal for Liverpool was scored in the 10th minute when Peter Crouch scored with his head after a pass from the flank. Just 25 minutes later, the same P. Crouch accurately passed the ball to S. Gerrard, who scored the second goal. However, before the break, the hosts managed to soften the result - Shola Ameobi scored a goal with his head.
Nevertheless, at the beginning of the second half, almost all of Newcastle's hopes were shattered when Jean Alain Boumsong, who was not finding his game, was sent off for a rough play in the penalty area. Djibril Cisse successfully scored from the penalty spot and secured Liverpool's victory.
Sunday's results: 1 - 0 17` [1 - 0] Luis Boa Morte 93` William Gallas sent off ("Chelsea") 1 - 3 10` [0 - 1] Peter Crouch 35` [0 - 2] Steven Gerrard 41` [1 - 2] Shola Ameobi 52` [1 - 3] Djibril Cisse 51` Jean Alain Boumsong sent off ("Newcastle") Top scorers: 1-2. Thierry Henry ("Arsenal") 19 goals Ruud van Nistelrooy ("Man Utd") 19 3. Darren Bent ("Charlton") 15 4. Frank Lampard ("Chelsea") 14 5-6. Marlon Harewood ("West Ham") 13 Aiyegbeni Yakubu ("Middlesbrough") 13
