Everton and Tottenham Hotspur booked their passages to Wembley during Tuesday's FA Cup quarterfinal matches, beating Sunderland and Bolton Wanderers, respectively.
FA Cup Quarterfinals, 2012: Tuesday Wrap
The situations leading up to the games were very different indeed -- Everton had been pegged back to a replay by a lively Sunderland nine days ago, while the Spurs-Bolton match was abandoned following Fabrice Muamba's cardiac arrest just before halftime at White Hart Lane that same weekend.
Sunderland Vs. Everton
Everton were battling for a spot against arch-nemeses Liverpool, and they were largely the better side at the Stadium of Light. Nikica Jelavić opened the scoring in the 24th minute, finishing off a cross from Magaye Gueye to give the visitors a deserved lead, but Sunderland looked dangerous on the break and threatened Tim Howard's goal on several occasions. That said, it was still Everton who looked more likely to score, and they wrapped things up just before the hour mark with a bizarre own goal:
That's some less-than-nice clearancing by David Vaughan. The Black Cats refused to give up, pushing for at least a consolation, but it was not to be and Everton go to the semifinals as 2-0 winners.
Tottenham Hotspur Vs. Bolton Wanderers
There’s been a rush of good feeling in the Bolton camp as Fabrice Muamba continues to recover from the awful events of the earlier, abortive version of this game, but the cheery mood wasn’t enough to overcome a strong Tottenham Hotspur side at home. After a tribute to the hospitalised midfielder, the match went basically as expected, with the hosts throwing bodies forward and the Trotters looking basically overwhelmed for much of the match.
That Bolton held out until the 74th minute was thanks to young goalkeeper Adam Bogdan, who pulled off a string of superb saves to keep the match scoreless. He wasn't getting much help from his teammates, but it looked as though he wasn't going to need any -- until former Blackburn Rovers captain Ryan Nelsen nodded home a corner kick to give Tottenham a 1-0 lead. It was two just a few minutes later, with Gareth Bale seemingly finishing things off with a low finish from 12 yards out.
Bolton weren't done though, and Kevin Davies handed them a lifeline in injury time after he slid past Carlo Cudicini from close range, but Louis Saha quelled all hopes of a comeback with a long-range effort to make it 3-1 in the dying moments. With the win, Tottenham book a place against Chelsea in the semifinals.
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