Arsenal

0-1

Man Utd

 

 

Scholes 32


FA Cup Semi-Final
Villa Park
03 April 2004

Manchester United are through to a sixteenth FA Cup Final after a single goal victory at Villa Park this afternoon.

Paul Scholes' strike midway through the first was enough to beat Arsenal and end the Londoners' hopes of emulating United's magnificent Treble success of 1998/99.

Arsenal hit the woodwork twice but United held on in the second half to go through to their first Final in five years.

In front of a superb Villa Park crowd, the two sides both started without their star strikers - Ruud van Nistelrooy gaving been ruled out with a knee injury and Arsene Wenger choosing to give Jeremie Aliadiere a first start in two months with Thierry Henry on the bench.

Arsenal could so easily have taken the lead within the first four minutes. Mikael Silvestre's hurried clearance was headed on by Edu towards an unmarked Dennis Bergkamp.

The Dutchman ran clear of the United defenders but, unusually for this most gifted of footballers, was let down by his first touch which saw him forced to go slightly wider than he would have liked.

That error gave United 'keeper Roy Carroll enough time to spread himself well at Bergkamp's feet and save the Arsenal man's shot. However the ball rebounded off Carroll's body fortuitously for Bergkamp and his second effort looked to be a certain goal only for Wes Brown to stoop low and head the ball off the line.

From the resulting corner, Arsenal had yet another chance and in all truth they should have opened the scoring.

Darren Fletcher managed to clear the ball only as far as Edu on the edge of the area. The 25-year-old, a scorer of an FA Cup goal against United last season, showed remarkable technique and vision to try an audacious chip with Carroll only a couple of yards of his goal-line.

Fortunately for United, the ball struck the top of the crossbar and with Carroll now stranded on the ground it appeared as though Kolo Toure was faced with the easiest possible task of just nodding the ball into the back of the net. But no. Carroll did brilliantly to get back on his feet and throw out his left hand to deflect Toure's header wide.

If Arsenal were looking to lay down a statement of intent then they certainly had done that but, having survived the early storm without conceeding, Sir Alex Ferguson's side came back into the match and slowly started to enjoy some quality possession of their own, without really creating any true goalscoring opportunities.

Another golden opportunity came Arsenal's way after 24 minutes. Bergkamp found some space in the United area and his floated cross found Robert Pires at the back post who, when completely unchallenged, contrived to head the ball tamely over the bar.

Then, against the run of play and in typical fashion, Paul Scholes scored a well-crafted goal to give the Premiership champions the lead.

It was a goal born out of simplicity. Gary Neville's excellent throughball afforded Ryan Giggs far too much space in the Arsenal area. 

The Welsh winger's low cross went behind most of the Arsenal defenders to the hanging-back Scholes who finished calmly past Lehmann.

A minute into first-half injury time, Pires chipped a free-kick into the United penalty area. The ball flicked off Roy Keane's head and for a moment the ball looked to be going in but, with Carroll helpless, it bounced onto the post and wide.

Without Thierry Henry in their starting line-up, one got the impression that Arsenal didn't quite know what to do with all their possession, robbed as they were of their main target.

No doubt worried by their lack of a cutting thrust, Wenger duly brought on Henry along with Jose Antonio Reyes and immediately Arsenal seemed to have a little more verve in their play.

Reyes in particular was full of energy and twice the former Sevilla man burst towards the United area only to shoot wide.

Arsenal enjoyed far more of the play as the clock ticked down but try as they might, United just wouldn't let them through.

With only a quarter of an hour to go Henry held the ball up and layed a good ball off to Reyes who, forced to cut inside, sent another shot, this time with his right foot, wide of Carroll's goal.

Arsenal were beginning to run out of time and United sensed it. The Gunners' tackling became a little more erratic - Lauren earning himself a yellow card for a crude hack on Giggs - and their normally efficient passing more rushed.

Henry was flagged for offside as he tried to latch onto Bergkamp's pass as the holders started to rue those early misses.

In injury time, Ljungberg sent over a teasing cross which fell for Reyes at the back post, but the young Spaniard couldn't drag Arsenal back into the match. Villa Park remains Sir Alex Ferguson's lucky ground and Arsenal's dreams of a Treble are gone.

Team Details

Arsenal: Lehmann, Lauren, Campbell, Toure, Clichy, Ljungberg, Vieira, Edu (Kanu, 76), Pires (Henry, 57), Bergkamp, Aliadiere (Reyes, 57).
Subs Not Used: Keown, Stack.

Man Utd: Carroll, G Neville, Brown, Silvestre, O'Shea, Ronaldo (Bellion, 84), Fletcher, Keane, Scholes, Giggs, Solskjaer (P Neville, 75).
Subs Not Used: Butt, Howard, Djemba-Djemba.

Referee: G Barber (Hertfordshire).
Attendance: 39,939