Berbatov scores winner to sink Spurs
Dimitar Berbatov claimed the winner for Manchester United
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Saturday, 24, Jan 2009 09:22
Dimitar Berbatov scored the winner for Manchester United as they came from behind to beat Tottenham 2-1 in the FA Cup this evening.
United had fallen behind after five minutes when Roman Pavlyuchenko found space in the penalty area to head past Ben Foster.
The Red Devils came storming back and were in the lead by half-time. Paul Scholes equalised with a deflected strike from the edge of the box and Berbatov scored with what turned out to be the winner with a well taken finish after he was put through by Michael Carrick.
Both Sir Alex Ferguson and Harry Redknapp had a number of players out injured, and Tottenham manager Redknapp said earlier in the week that he would be sending a "mish-mash" team to face United.
But Redknapp decided to change his mind and selected a strong team with only Jermain Defoe the real big name to missing from the starting line-up. Redknapp was rewarded with picking a strong team as Tottenham took an early lead, with Pavlyuchenko geting in front of Nemanja Vidic to head home a Tom Huddlestone cross.
The goal kicked United into life and they dominated the rest of the first-half. The industrious Carlos Tevez saw a thumping left-footed shot come back off the bar as well as having a shot superbly saved by young Spurs keeper Ben Alnwick.
United started to lay siege on the Spurs goal with debutant left-back Fabio Da Silva and 18-year-old Danny Welbeck catching the eye for the home side.
But it was two old heads who combined to bring United level. Carrick took a corner and passed it to Scholes on the edge of the box, with the midfielder's shot going through a sea of players and taking a deflection of Huddlestone before going in.
The Spurs defence could barely regroup from the equaliser and they were soon behind. The central defenders left a gaping hole and Berbatov sprinted clear from Carrick's through pass to fire into the bottom left-hand corner.
Spurs worked tirelessly in the second-half in search of the equaliser, but despite bringing on Defoe, they were unable to fashion a clear-cut chance. The closest they came was a long-range David Bentley strike which hit the side-netting.