European football roundup: Manchester City, Coventry reach FA Cup semis; Fulham stun Tottenham in Premier League

Bernardo Silva scored twice as Manchester City beat Newcastle 2-0 to reach the FA Cup semi-finals on Saturday, while Coventry struck twice in stoppage time to stun Wolves 3-2.

Holders City remain on course to repeat their treble triumph of Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup last season as Pep Guardiola’s men stretched their unbeaten run in all competitions to 22 games.

Fortune favoured the English champions, though, as twice Silva’s shots took deflections to wrong-foot Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka.

The Portuguese international opened the scoring on 13 minutes when his effort looped in off Dan Burn.

Silva’s second deflected off Sven Botman, but Dubravka should still have done better as the ball trickled underneath him.

At the other end, City’s number one goalkeeper Ederson was not missed as Stefan Ortega produced a brilliant save to deny Alexander Isak pulling a goal back for Newcastle.

Dubravka made amends for his earlier error with fine saves from Jeremy Doku either side of half-time to keep the score down.

But it was too little, too late for Newcastle’s hopes of silverware this season as the Magpies remain without a major trophy since 1969.

City are the first side to ever reach the FA Cup semi-finals in six consecutive seasons.

“I know we play to win the finals, but to win it, you have to win the earlier rounds,” said Guardiola.

“To run and play the way they did is incredible. Congratulations to the team, no one has done that before.”

By contrast, Coventry reached their first semi-final since they won the competition for the only time in 1987 in a five-goal thriller at Molineux.

The Sky Blues led early in the second half through Ellis Simms’ controversial opener after a VAR check for potential handball by the Coventry striker.

But the Championship side looked to have blown their chance to reach Wembley when Wolves themselves scored twice in the final seven minutes of the 90.

Rayan Ait-Nouri pounced on an error from Joel Latibeaudiere to smash home the equaliser and then set up his fellow left-back Hugo Bueno to fire into the bottom corner for his first senior goal.

However, Simms’ second goal of the match levelled in the 97th minute before he teed up American international Haji Wright to fire into the corner three minutes later.

The drama did not end there as Wolves boss Gary O’Neil labelled Coventry manager Mark Robins’ celebrations in the face of a teenage ball boy “disgusting”.

Robins apologised after being riled by the ball boy’s attempts to waste time late in the game.

“I apologise to him, I don’t show emotion very often but that is what the FA Cup does to you,” said Robins.

A founder member of the Premier League, Coventry sank from the top down to the fourth tier of English football as recently as the 2017/18 season.

But they have achieved two promotions under Robins and narrowly missed out on a return to the Premier League last season, losing the Championship playoff final to Luton on penalties.

Wembley awaits once more in the last four, but Robins is realistic of his side’s chances of glory with the likes of City or Liverpool potentially waiting in the semis.

“We have got a small chance. We are going to Wembley and we are going to enjoy that game,” added Robins.

“I don’t want to go there and just make the numbers up. We are not stupid, we know the levels go up all of the time.”

Liverpool travel to Manchester United in the pick of Sunday’s quarter-final ties, while Chelsea host Leicester.

Spurs’ top four bid rocked by Fulham

Tottenham wasted a chance to move into the Premier League’s top four as they slumped to a shock 3-0 defeat at Fulham, while Luton salvaged a crucial 1-1 draw with relegation rivals Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Ange Postecoglou’s side would have climbed above Aston Villa into fourth place with a win, but instead they handed the initiative back to their top-four rivals.

Fifth-placed Tottenham were punished for a sloppy performance as the in-form Rodrigo Muniz netted twice either side of Sasa Lukic’s first goal for Fulham.

A 4-0 win at Villa last weekend was expected to act as Tottenham’s springboard to finish above Unai Emery’s team in the battle to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Instead, the north Londoners crashed to a first league defeat at Craven Cottage since 2008 and failed to score for the first time in 40 games.

They sit two points behind Villa, who can extend that lead to five if they win at West Ham on Sunday.

“We were careless on the ball. It goes down as a bad day at the office but we don’t accept it. It wasn’t our normal levels. We didn’t have the same intensity,” Postecoglou said.

“We’re two points behind Villa. There’s so much football left. It’s about how we play.”

With Micky van de Ven sidelined by a hamstring injury, Radu Dragusin made his first Tottenham start.

Worryingly for Postecoglou, Romania centre-back Dragusin, signed from Genoa in January, was often exposed in a rocky display.

Fulham took the lead in the 42nd minute when Muniz cleverly drifted away from Dragusin as the Brazilian forward found space to meet Antonee Robinson’s low cross with a clinical finish from 10 yards.

Tottenham’s defensive deficiencies were exposed again four minutes after half-time.

Iwobi was allowed to advance unchecked and he slipped a pass to Timothy Castagne, whose cross hit Lukic and deflected into the net.

Tottenham were in tatters and Muniz struck again in the 61st minute.

Joao Palhinha’s header reached Calvin Bassey and when his shot was saved by Guglielmo Vicario, Muniz reacted quicker than Dragusin to stab home.

As the fight to avoid relegation comes to a head, Luton and Forest met in a vital showdown at Kenilworth Road.

Forest, beaten in their previous three games, took the lead through Chris Wood’s 34th minute strike.

But Luke Berry came off the bench to equalise from close-range in the 89th minute.

Third-bottom Luton, who blew a three-goal lead in Wednesday’s disastrous 4-3 defeat at Bournemouth, are without a win in their last nine games in all competitions.

They lie three points behind fourth-bottom Forest and boss Rob Edwards said: “You get knocked down on Wednesday and it was very tough for us all. We performed really well today in difficult circumstances.

“This group just keep going. We’ve got to fight. We’ve had to do that for a long time.”

Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo added: “We did enough to win it with the chances we had and the way we played.”

At Turf Moor, second-bottom Burnley kept alive their faint survival hopes with a 2-1 victory against Brentford.

Vincent Kompany’s side took the lead in the 10th minute when Vitinho sprinted onto Josh Cullen’s pass and was about to shoot when he was pulled down by Sergio Reguilon.

The Spanish defender was shown the earliest red card in the Premier League this season, after a VAR check, and Jacob Bruun Larsen stepped up to convert the spot-kick.

David Datro Fofana, on loan from Chelsea, struck in the 62nd minute with a composed finish into the far corner.

Kristoffer Ajer got one back in the 83rd minute with a diving header from Bryan Mbeumo’s cross, but the Clarets held on for their first league win in 11 games.

They are now eight points from safety with nine games left.

“It had been coming. On another day we could have scored more,” Kompany said.

Brentford have won only three of their past 18 league games and sit just four points above the relegation zone.

Vinicius strikes twice as Real thrash Osasuna

Vinicius Junior struck twice to earn Real Madrid a commanding 10 point lead at the top of La Liga in a 4-2 rout of Osasuna on Saturday, with fading title rivals Girona falling to a 1-0 defeat at Getafe.

The Brazilian forward mesmerised for Los Blancos and reached 18 goals across all competitions this season, while Dani Carvajal and Brahim Diaz also found the net in an entertaining romp for Carlo Ancelotti’s side.

Girona, second, were undone by Yellu Santiago’s first half strike and have now suffered four consecutive away defeats – started by a demoralising 4-0 thrashing at Madrid.

Third-place Barcelona, 11 points behind Madrid, travel to face Atletico Madrid, fifth, and can overtake Girona with a victory on Sunday.

Athletic Bilbao rose above Atletico to fourth with a 2-0 win over Alaves thanks to a brace from Gorka Guruzeta.

Madrid were without top goalscorer Jude Bellingham, completing a two-match suspension but, with Vinicius in full flow, barely missed the England international at El Sadar in Pamplona.

“I congratulated him, he had an extraordinary game, he made good decisions, he moved very well without the ball, that’s where’s he’s improved the most,” Ancelotti told reporters.

“With the ball he’s always efficient and without it he’s spectacular at the moment, he’s so fast.”

Vinicius’ name made headlines this week after Real Madrid filed a legal complaint over alleged racist insults aimed at the Brazilian by Atletico Madrid and Barcelona fans, but on the pitch the forward’s quality continues to speak for itself.

The 23-year-old dispossessed Alejandro Catena, ran through and calmly rolled the ball past Sergio Herrera to break the deadlock after four minutes.

Osasuna were quickly back level through Ante Budimir, who finished from close range at a corner.

Madrid captain Carvajal put his side in front again in the 18th minute, finishing sublimely with the outside of his boot after Fede Valverde cleverly hooked the ball into his path in the box.

Vinicius was booked just before half-time for dissent, his fifth yellow card of the season in La Liga – meaning he is now banned for Athletic Bilbao’s visit to the Santiago Bernabeu at the end of March.

Diaz stretched Madrid’s lead after an hour with a clinical finish after running on to a long ball, flicked on by Valverde.

Vinicius grabbed his second a few minutes later with a subtle poked finish after Valverde sent him hurtling in on goal to complete a hat-trick of assists – it was the striker’s 12th league goal of the season.

He started the campaign slowly by his high standards but has six goals in his last four league matches.

The Brazilian could have completed his hat-trick just a couple of minutes later but fired wide after another dart into the box past Osasuna’s crumbling back line.

Home fans whistled Vinicius as he was substituted in the final stages but Ancelotti gave the forward a hug as thanks for taking Madrid one step closer to the Spanish title.

“The pressure that he has in terms of the atmosphere, he has to control that a bit more,” added Ancelotti, after Vinicius’ booking, his third yellow in three league games.

Iker Munoz pulled one back for Osasuna in stoppage time before Madrid almost wrapped up the win in spectacular fashion, but youngster Arda Guler hit the bar with an effort from just inside Osasuna’s half.

Getafe, despite the absence of top goalscorer Borja Mayoral, were able to inflict a fourth consecutive away defeat on Michel Sanchez’s slumping Girona.

“Every defeat worries us, we want to fight to get into the Champions League,” Michel told reporters.

“We have a historic chance to do it and if we don’t, for me, it would be very tough to take.”

The Catalan minnows’ top goalscorer Artem Dovbyk missed two good chances after Santiago fired Getafe ahead following good work by Ilaix Moriba.

“I have no words to describe this defeat,” said Girona winger Savinho.

Harry Kane breaks 60-year old record in Bayern romp

Harry Kane broke a 60-year record for most goals in a debut season while Jamal Musiala scored twice as Bayern Munich won 5-2 at Darmstadt on Saturday.

With 31 goals in 26 league games since arriving from Spurs in the summer, Kane overtook German legend Uwe Seeler, who scored 30 goals for Hamburg in 1963-64.

Musiala also had an assist in the win, which keeps Bayern’s slim hopes of defending the Bundesliga title alive, moving them seven points behind Bayer Leverkusen, who play at Freiburg on Sunday.

“We are staying in it. We worked hard to get ourselves some opportunities and we took them,” said Bayern captain Manuel Neuer, praising “difference makers like Jamal on the pitch.”

The goalkeeper was however disappointed his side had conceded two goals against last-placed Darmstadt, saying: “We all need to work on it.”

Darmstadt stunned Bayern after 28 minutes, Tim Skarke taking advantage of some sleepy defending by Eric Dier to score and give the home side hope of an incredible upset against the German champions.

Kane would however drag Bayern into the lead before half-time, assisting Musiala’s 36th-minute goal before scoring one of his own, rising high to head in a Joshua Kimmich chip in first-half stoppage time.

Musiala added another midway through the second half when he collected a Thomas Mueller throw-in and danced through the box before shooting between the goalkeeper’s legs.

As he did last week, Serge Gnabry scored moments after coming off the bench to seal the win.

Bayern’s Mathys Tel and Darmstadt’s Oscar Vilhelmsson both scored in stoppage time.

n Saturday’s late game, Stuttgart continued their remarkable turnaround this season, Serhou Guirassy scoring again in a 3-0 win over neighbours Hoffenheim.

Third from bottom last season and needing to win a play-off to stay in the first division, third-placed Stuttgart have rocketed up the table this year and now have one hand on a top four spot and a return to the Champions League.

Enzo Millot’s 16th-minute goal broke Hoffenheim’s resistance and Guirassy scored just before half-time, his 22nd league goal of the season after just 20 games.

Jamie Leweling scored to seal the win with 20 minutes remaining to seal Stuttgart’s first win in Hoffenheim for over a decade.

In the German capital, Union Berlin beat Werder Bremen 2-1 thanks to a commanding performance from US midfielder Brenden Aaronson, on loan from Leeds.

Aaronson, who was surprisingly left out of the US squad this week, had a hand in two goals in three second-half minutes to give Union the upper hand.

The 23-year-old laid on Yorbe Vertessen’s 50th-minute goal, before creating and scoring one of his own with some superb dribbling shortly after.

Mitchell Weiser pulled one back for the visitors but Union held on, recording their fifth win in seven home matches under coach Nenad Bjelica.

“It’s been the toughest year of my life,” Aaronson told reporters after scoring his second goal in Union colours.

“Going from Leeds and then not playing much here, it’s mentally a battle all the time, staying confident.”

Augsburg came from a goal down to beat a 10-man Wolfsburg 3-1 away from home, their fourth-straight league win taking them to seventh on the table.

Wolfsburg’s Patrick Wimmer scored after just nine minutes but was sent from the field in tears just before half-time for a last-man foul, with Augsburg’s Arne Maier scoring from the ensuing free-kick.

Kristijan Jakic scored a second-half double to seal the win, piling more pressure on Niko Kovac’s Wolfsburg who have won just one game in 15.

Mainz won 2-0 at home against Bochum to keep their hopes of avoiding relegation alive. Mainz moved past Cologne, who were thumped 5-1 by Leipzig on Friday, into 16th, the relegation playoff spot.

Promoted Heidenheim drew 1-1 at home with Borussia Moenchengladbach to collect another valuable point and go 10 clear of the relegation spots in their first season in the top division.

Substitute Castellanos scores 2 goals in win for Lazio as post-Sarri era begins

Substitute Taty Castellanos scored twice in Lazio’s 3-2 win at relegation-threatened Frosinone on Saturday in what is set to be interim coach Giovanni Martusciello’s only match in charge of the capital club.

Pol Lirola gave Frosinone the lead before Mattia Zaccagni leveled shortly before halftime. Castellanos scored twice after the break but Walid Cheddira reduced the deficit to set up a nervy final 20 minutes and also had a goal ruled out.

Martusciello, Maurizio Sarri’s longtime assistant, was named caretaker coach on Wednesday after Sarri resigned. But Italian media reports an agreement has already been reached with Igor Tudor to take over from Monday.

Tudor has previously coached Udinese and Hellas Verona in Serie A. The 45-year-old Croatian’s last job was at Marseille, which he left in June after leading it to third place in the French league.

Lazio had lost its last four matches — including a Champions League exit at Bayern Munich — and got off to the worst start at Frosinone as Lirola headed the home side into the lead in the 13th minute.

Lazio was struggling and Frosinone had chances to extend its lead before Zaccagni volleyed in a cross from Matteo Guendouzi to level, seven minutes from the break.

Castellanos was brought on for Ciro Immobile in the 56th minute, with play stopped following a foul by Frosinone, and he had an immediate impact as he headed in Luis Alberto’s free kick.

Castellanos called the whole team over to celebrate with him in a huddle, including the players on the bench.

And the Argentine forward doubled his tally just five minutes later. Nicolò Casale’s effort came off the left post but Castellanos was quickest to react. With Frosinone goalkeeper Stefano Turati on the ground, he just had to tap the rebound into the empty net.

Cheddira pulled one back with an acrobatic, overhead kick in the 70th minute and thought he had leveled three minutes later, following a howler by Lazio stand-in goalkeeper Christos Mandas, but it was ruled out for offside.

Ninth-place Lazio is 11 points behind fourth-place Bologna, while Frosinone remained a point from safety.

Another coaching change? 

Lecce had the ideal debut under new coach Luca Gotti as it won 1-0 at bottom club Salernitana to snap a five-match winless run and move four points clear of the relegation zone.

Gotti was appointed on Wednesday, two days after Roberto D’Aversa was fired for headbutting an opposing player.

Salernitana was the better team for much of the match and Lecce had goalkeeper Wladimiro Falcone to thank for a number of decisive saves.

Lecce took the lead in the 17th minute when, during a goalmouth scramble, Salernitana defender Norbert Gyömbér deflected the ball into his own net.

It was only the second goal Lecce had scored since Feb. 2. The previous one was also an own-goal.

Salernitana remained 11 points from safety and seemingly doomed for Serie B. CEO Maurizio Milan said it is “evaluating” whether to fire Fabio Liverani, the team’s third coach of the season.

Like father, like son

Daniel Maldini has emulated his father by scoring against a Cagliari side coached by Claudio Ranieri.

A stunning free kick, four minutes from halftime, was enough to secure a 1-0 win for Monza and left Cagliari two points above the drop zone.

The 22-year-old Maldini, who joined Monza on loan from AC Milan in January, has scored three goals in his last four matches.

His father, Paolo Maldini, was a former Milan captain and defender. One of his 29 Serie A goals came against Cagliari in 1991 when the Sardinian team was previously coached by Ranieri.

Udinese was only three points above the relegation zone after losing 2-0 at home to Torino.

With agency inputs