Fulham 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur
Bobby Zamora failed to find the net against his old club
Saturday, 06, Mar 2010 07:10
By Matthew Champion.
Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur played out a goalless draw and set up an FA Cup replay after nothing could separate the two sides in their sixth round tie.
Harry Redknapp's Spurs, bidding for their ninth FA Cup title, dominated the first half but failed to create any clear-cut chances, while in the second half Roy Hodgson's home side made more of a game of it without ever really threatening.
Tottenham had started the match with the unfamiliar central forward pairing of Roman Pavlyuchenko and Peter Crouch, the former in deadly form for his club and the latter the same for his country.
But neither the Russian, who had scored five goals in his last three Spurs games, nor Crouch, who scored twice for England against Egypt in midweek, could make an impact at Craven Cottage against a typically robust Fulham side.
The visitors enjoyed the lion's share of possession early on, with Vedran Corluka and Gareth Bale offering excellent width, while Fulham continually looked for the height of Zoltan Gera or the in-form Bobby Zamora, who tested Heurelho Gomes in the Spurs goal.
But with Croatian duo Luka Modric and Nico Kranjcar off the pace it looked increasingly likely in a drab first-half that if the breakthrough was going to come, it would be from a dead-ball situation or an individual piece of brilliance.
Kranjcar eventually found his feet, going close with a free-kick before stinging Mark Schwarzer's palms with a powerful drive after neat footwork by Pavlyuchenko; just moments before a dangerous Jonathan Greening cross had caused havoc in the Spurs penalty box.
Schwarzer was called into action against on the half hour mark when one of Bale's trademark cross-field runs saw Corluka pick out Crouch with an arrowed cross.
Right after the re-start Gera forced Gomes into a leaping save with a header from within the six-yard box from a Zamora knock-on as both sides came out full of a vigour distinctly lacking from the first 45. But neither side had anything to show for it apart from snap shots by Michael Dawson and Damien Duff.
Redknapp hauled off the enigmatic Pavlyuchenko for Jermain Defoe with less than eight minutes of normal time left, but the England striker failed to trouble the Fulham defence.
Both sides will now go into the FA Cup semi-final draw on Sunday.