FA Cup Quarter-Final: Portsmouth 1 – Arsenal 5
Posted by Pierre Igot in: FootballMarch 6th, 2004 • 11:18 am
Not much to report on this one… Portsmouth were lively and seemed motivated in the beginning, but they were cut apart a bit too easily by Arsenal’s strikers. Once Thierry Henry scored the opening goal with a fine finish, there was really no sign of a possible upset. Arsenal entirely dominated the rest of the half and the first 15 minutes of the second half, and that was enough to give them a 5-0 lead. After the triple substitution, things fell apart a bit, with Gilberto in particular committing a couple of howlers and Portsmouth hitting the woodwork twice, but it took a fine finish by Sherringham to give them the consolation goal that they deserved.
Reyes worked very hard and would have deserved to feature on the score sheet, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. I am sure his work was appreciated by everyone nonetheless and he’s definitely starting to look more and more like an Arsenal player.
The big question now is of course whether we’ll get a semi-final between the only two remaining EPL teams in the competition, i.e. Arsenal and Manchester United. We’ll know on Monday.