Arsenal overcome spirited Hull
William Gallas scored a controversial winner for Arsenal
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Tuesday, 17, Mar 2009 10:21
Arsenal booked their place in the semi-finals of the FA Cup as they came from behind to beat Hull City 2-1 at the Emirates.
Hull took a surprise early lead when former Tottenham favourite Nicky Barmy saw his deflected effort from the edge of the penalty area take a deflection of Johan Djourou and loop over Lukas Fabianski.
Geovanni has become the king of free-kicks for Hull and the Brazilian almost gave his side a two goal lead with a curling free-kick, but Fabianski was there to make a fine save. Barmby thought he had scored from the resulting corner, but his effort was ruled out for offside.
Arsenal decided to rest a number of their key players and gave starts to youngsters like Kieran Gibbs, Alex Song and Carlos Vela. Which meant the likes of Theo Walcott, Andrey Arhsavin and Robin van Persie had to take more responsibility for Arsenal.
England winger Walcott was bright early on for Arsenal and it looked like he would score when he weaved his way into the Hull penalty area, but was blocked by a great challenge from Kamil Zayatte.
Walcott then played the ball through to Arshavin who came close to equalising with his effort from eight yards out, but Sam Ricketts maintained the lead for Hull with a brilliant block.
Arsenal continued to press on looking for the equaliser and should have been back on level terms, but Abou Diaby somehow headed over inside the penalty area from a cross from Arshavin. Hull were being forced to defend with their lives and Andy Dawson was on hand to clear a van Persie header off the line.
The Arsenal equaliser came on the hour mark when substitute Nicklas Bendtenr drove towards the Hull defence, before passing to Arshavin and he laid the ball into the path of van Persie for a tap-in.
Hull almost regained the lead when Geovanni unleashed a shot which beat Fabianski, but hit the side-netting.
Arsenal eventually booked a semi-final clash with Chelsea through a disputed William Gallas goal. The defender headed home from three yards out after a long ball was played into the Hull penalty area by Samir Nasri, but replays suggested that Gallas was offside.