Paul Scholes fired Manchester United into the FA Cup final and ended Arsenal’s hopes of winning the world’s oldest cup competition three years in a row on Saturday as the Reds won 1-0 in a Villa Park semifinal.
Scholes struck in the 32nd minute to give United a great chance of adding to their record 10 FA Cups. In the May 22 final at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, Alex Ferguson’s men will face the winner of Sunday’s all-division-one semifinal between Sunderland and Millwall.
The Gunners hit the post or the bar three times and were twice foiled by United ‘keeper Roy Carroll in the first half.
But Arsene Wenger’s team, who appear to be running away with the Premier League title, failed to set a record of four finals in a row as their 18-game unbeaten record in the FA Cup came to an end.
It also meant no chance of emulating Manchester United’s 1999 feat of winning the treble — the domestic league and FC Cup and the Champions League. Now Wenger has to pick up his deflated players for Tuesday’s Champions League quarterfinal second-leg game against Chelsea at Highbury with the two sides tied on 1-1.
By contrast, barring a major upset in the final, the Reds should now wind up with a title after seemingly expected to win nothing.
Despite the absence of Arsenal top scorer Thierry Henry, who was on the bench, and injured United striker Van Nistelrooy, the game had a thrilling opening spell.
Carroll, again chosen ahead of American ‘keeper Tim Howard, raced off his line to save at the feet of Dennis Bergkamp who then had his follow-up lob headed off the line by Wes Brown.
After Robert Pires had hit the United bar with a dipping shot, the ball fell to two Arsenal players on front of goal. Edu headed against the bar and Carroll made a wonder save to fist away a close range header from Kolo Toure.
Then it was United’s turn to put pressure on the Gunners defence with Cristiano Ronaldo repeatedly getting past Gael Clichy on the right and sending over some well-placed crosses the absent Van Nistelrooy probably would have turned into goals.
Sol Campbell, not known for his dribbling skills, then went past four United men and released the ball to Bergkamp who set up an easy chance for Pires. But the French midfielder, with just Carroll to beat from six yards, headed over the bar.
But United put together a slick move to go ahead in the 32nd minute.
Roy Keane won the ball and fed Gary Neville, who spotted Ryan Giggs unmarked ahead of him and just outside the Arsenal area. He ran clear of the defence and sent in a cross to Scholes who drove the ball low and hard past ‘keeper Jens Lehmann.
Arsenal almost levelled in the final minute of the first half when Patrick Vieira climbed to meet a free kick from Pires and his glancing header struck the outside of the post.
Arsenal appealed for a penalty early in the second half when Bergkamp tumbled inside the box under a challenge in front of the Gunners’ own fans.
There was a flashpoint at the other end when Ronaldo ran the ball out of play but was needlessly sent sprawling by Lehmann, who was shown the yellow card. The German goalkeeper was booked.
Wenger sent on Henry and Jose Antonio Reyes with 30 minutes to go and the Spanish forward carved open the United defence with a clever run only to be foiled by a well-timed tackle by Mikael Silvestre.
Ferguson sent on Phil Neville for Solskjaer to leave just Ronaldo in attack and trying to preserve the lead. With six minutes to go, he then took off the tiring Portuguese teenager and sent on the fresh David Bellion. — Sapa-AP