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Over the weekend in England, the third round matches of the Football Association Cup ("FA cup") took place, where 64 teams compete for the right to play in the round of sixteen. Unlike the League Cup tournament, in the FA Cup matches the leaders did not concede to weaker opponents and there were no major surprises recorded. It became clear after this weekend that in spring, the Football Association Cup in England will go to new winners.
The biggest victory was achieved by London's "Chelsea", who crushed fourth division underdogs "Macclesfield" 6-1, coached by former well-known footballer Paul Ince. Interestingly, the visitors managed to equalize the score, but the hosts responded with 5 goals. Frank Lampard scored three goals.
The central match took place in Liverpool, where last season's cup winners "Liverpool" hosted "Arsenal". The Gunners took the lead after two goals by Tomas Rosicky at the end of the first half. In the 71st minute, Dirk Kuyt reduced the score, but with 7 minutes left to play, "Liverpool" defender Jamie Carragher made a mistake, and Thierry Henry took advantage of it to score the decisive goal - 1-3.
"Liverpool" was forced to exit the tournament, while the 2005 winner "Arsenal" progressed. Just 2 days later, these two teams will meet again in Liverpool, this time in the quarterfinals of the League Cup.
Another Liverpool team, "Everton", lost 1-4 at home to "Blackburn".
"Man United" successfully debuted their new acquisition, Swedish Henrik Larsson. In the match against "Aston Villa", Larsson led the "Red Devils" forward. Later, Milan Baros equalized the score, but in the last minute, another Scandinavian, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who replaced H. Larsson, spoke the final word – 2-1 and "Man Utd" celebrated victory.
Other interesting matches include - struggling "Charlton" losing 0-2 to legendary "Nottingham Forest" as visitors, "West Ham" crushing "Brighton" 3-0, "Watford" beating "Stockport" 4-1, "Bolton" showing no mercy as visitors with a 4-0 win over "Doncaster", and "Portsmouth" defeating "Wigan" 2-1. Meanwhile, "Sheffield Utd" suffered a shameful 0-3 defeat at home to third division "Swansea".
Not all favorites in the matches beat their perceived weaker opponents. "Newcastle" drew 2-2 at "Birmingham" as visitors, "Middlesbrough" drew 1-1 with "Hull", "Fulham" drew 2-2 with "Leicester City", and "Man City" drew 1-1 with "Sheffield Wednesday". These clubs will play replays at a later date.
