Saturday Football Round-up: Drogba fires Chelsea into the final

FA Cup / Maxliu / 18 April 2009 / Leave a Comment

Guus Hiddink's men come from behind to reach second FA Cup final in three years... Meanwhile, in the league, Stoke climb to safety and Sunderland sink Hull.

Chelsea are [1.92] to lift this year's FA Cup after they came from behind to beat Arsenal 2-1 in their semi-final at Wembley.

The Blues drifted to [6.4] after Theo Walcott put the Gunners ahead after 18 minutes only for Florent Malouda to hit a clinical shot inside Lukasz Fabianski's near post a quarter of an hour later.

Throughout the second-half Didier Drogba and Mikael Silvestre engaged in a compelling physical tussle until, with six minutes remaining, Drogba broke free of his marker, latched onto Frank Lampard's long pass and rounded the advancing Fabianski before firing Chelsea into the final.

In this kind of bullish, unplayable mood few would bet against Drogba inspiring Chelsea to a second FA Cup in three years.

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In the Premier League , Stoke City's top flight survival is all but mathematically guaranteed after they traded at [5.7] on their way to a crucial home win against Blackburn Rovers.

Tony Pulis' men are up to 11th in the table and out to [39.0] in Betfair's relegation market after Jamie Lawrence scored the 84th minute goal that gave them the win.

After today's defeat, punters are less convinced of Blackburn Rover's chances of staying in the division. Sam Allardyce's men huffed and puffed to no avail at the Britannia Stadium - they hit long balls into the area but created few chances and can now be backed at [6.6] to be playing Championship football next season.

Things are looking even worse for Middlesborough after they were held to a 0-0 draw at home to Fulham. Gareth Southgate's side looked tired and uninspired and by the end of the game Fulham looked the more likely to take all three points. As a result, Middlesborough remain second from bottom and are into [1.27] to go down.

Hull City shouldn't be written of either after they were beaten by Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. Djibril Cisse got the winner on the stroke of half-time which sees the Black Cats, now a [7.2] shot for relegation, leapfrog Hull into 15th place and four points from safety. Having been matched as high as [13.5] after their excellent start to the season, Phil Brown's side are now in a perilous position, trading at [2.26].

At the other end of the table, it was another miserable day for Aston Villa as they failed to win for the 11th game in a row. Things looked good for the home side when Emile Heskey put them ahead in the first half but a late header from Diego Tristan earned Gianfranco Zola's men a useful point on the road and value for those who took the draw at [9.2].