Bolton Wanderers

1-0

Arsenal

Stelios 84

 

 


The FA Cup Fourth Round Proper
The Reebok Stadium
Saturday 28 January 2006
Winning club receives £60,000
£150,000 television payment for each club




Bolton Wanderers got their revenge on Arsenal for last season's FA Cup quarter final defeat and inevitably the winning goal once again came from the head of Greek midfielder Stelios Giannakopoulos.

With Arsenal playing 120 minutes of football on Tuesday evening in the League Cup semi-final with Wigan, Arsene Wenger was forced to make changes to his team with Thierry Henry among the absentees.

Bolton were also struggling with injuries and African nations participation and were missing a number of first team regulars. The changes to both teams undoubtedly affected the football played in the first-half, with neither side threatening the opposing keeper.

The holders dominated the opening exchanges with some impressive link up play, but it was Bolton who almost opened the scoring after five minutes when a free-kick caused confusion that Manuel Almunia failed to quell.

Luckily for the Spaniard the ball deflected our for a corner and not into his goal. Mexican striker Jared Borgetti had a stretched header saved easily by Almunia after eleven minutes following some quick build up play by Bolton.

Truth be told the first-half failed to live up to expectations, with both sides struggling to impose themselves on the game.

The shooting was particularly disappointing with a number of opportunities presenting more of a threat to the spectators than the goalkeepers.

The second half began with a bang when Diaby made a strong challenge on Ivan Campo and received a yellow card. The cold weather failing to cool the tempers as Campo made his unhappiness plain to Mike Dean.

There was a flurry of bookings after this tackle with Davies and Senderos also receiving yellow cards inside the first five minutes of the half.

With both teams beginning to show their reluctance to add another fixture to their busy schedules some attacking football broke out.

With Van Persie leading the Arsenal attack Freddie Ljungberg went close with a spectacular half-volley.

The young Dutchman set up Ljungberg with a clever reverse pass but Jaaskelainen prevented the goal with an acrobatic tip over the crossbar.

From the resulting corner a goalmouth scramble led to an opportunity for Sol Campbell but the England defender's effort clipped the top of the bar and the deadlock continued.

The loss of Ivan Campo to injury seemed to have affected the defensive stability of the Trotters and they began to look vulnerable to an increasingly confident Arsenal forward line.

Matt Jansen then entered the fray, making his return after a succession of injuries at Blackburn Rovers, and he was nearly an instant hero. Some indecisive defending from Arsenal led to an opening for the left-sided forward whose firm effort was well saved by Almunia.

Bolton finally opened the scoring with just six minutes remaining when Stelios scored yet again against the North London side.

With the winning goals against Arsenal in their previous two visits to the Reebok it was a case of deja-vu for Arsene Wenger as his defence fell asleep and the Greek winger made no mistake.

It was a long looping cross from Anthony Gardner that Sol Campbell failed to deal with and Bolton had the lead they so desperately wanted.

Coming just four days after Wigan knocked them out of the League Cup with a late goal from Jason Roberts, Arsenal must now look to their Champions League match with Real Madrid as their final chance of silverware.

For Bolton it is completely different as the Trotters will have all eyes on the Fifth Round Draw on Monday, which will be made at Soho Square at 1.30pm.

Bolton:

J Jaaskelainen, J O'Brien, T Ben Haim, B N'Gotty, R Gardner, K Nolan, I Campo (54 R Vaz Te) , H Nakata, K Davies, J Borgetti (73 M Jansen) , S Giannakopoulos (89 N Hunt)

Subs not used: I Walker, J Fojut

Arsenal:

M Almunia, K Gilbert, P Senderos, S Campbell, J Djourou, V Diaby, M Flamini, A Hleb, F Ljungberg, R Van Persie, J Reyes

Subs not used: M Poom, S Larsson, N Bendtner, A Lupoli, F Muamba 

Attendance: 13,326

Referee: Mike Dean