FA Cup holder Chelsea clinches quarterfinal-spot with 4-1 victory over second-tier Cardiff

FA Cup holder Chelsea advances with Cardiff win

LONDON — Holder Chelsea had to step up a gear in the second half to reach the FA Cup quarterfinals Saturday with a 4-1 victory over Cardiff. Manchester City will have to play Stoke again after being held to a 1-1 tie.

Chelsea’s fifth-round match was a 1-1 tie after Didier Drogba’s second-minute goal was canceled out by Michael Chopra.

But the Premier League leaders took control after the break as Michael Ballack, Daniel Sturridge and Salomon Kalou scored to extend the club’s unbeaten home run to 37 matches.

“They caused us a lot of problems in the first half,” Chelsea assistant manager Ray Wilkins said. “But thankfully we managed to up the tempo in the second half.”

Shaun Wright-Phillips gave Man City an early lead before Stoke evened it at the start of the second half when Ricardo Fuller headed in Rory Delap’s long throw-in.

Portsmouth scored three times in 10 minutes as the financially troubled club earned a 4-1 victory at south-coast rival Southampton.

Reading’s Jimmy Kebe scored after nine seconds — one of the fastest FA Cup goals — but ended up drawing 2-2 with fellow League Championship side West Bromwich Albion to force a replay.

Birmingham came from a goal down to beat second-tier Derby 2-1 with Liam Ridgewell scoring a last-minute winner.

Chelsea was the only top-four club in action this weekend as Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool had already been eliminated from the FA Cup.

The Chelsea defense was without John Terry, who has been allowed to travel to Dubai to see his wife following newspaper allegations about his private life. Also missing was left back Ashley Cole, who is out for three months after breaking his left ankle.

PARIS (AP) — Victor Hugo Montano scored his ninth goal this season as Montpellier beat Grenoble 1-0 to draw even on points with French league leader Bordeaux.

Defending champion Bordeaux and Montpellier have 48 points each with Bordeaux topping the standings with a better goal differential.

Bordeaux, which has won only one of its last four league games, plays Saint-Etienne on Sunday.

Third-place Lille beat northern rival Boulogne-sur-Mer 3-1 after two goals from Ludovic Obraniak to stay in the title race with 44 points.

Marseille moved up to fourth overall with a 2-1 win at Monaco. Without injured Brazilian striker Brandao, Marseille bounced back from a 3-1 French Cup defeat at Lens with a convincing display.

Marseille, with one match in hand, has 42 points while Monaco stayed sixth with 39 points.

FRANKFURT (AP) — Bayern Munich rallied to beat Borussia Dortmund 3-1 and move within a goal of Bundesliga leader Bayer Leverkusen, which capitalized on two goalkeeping errors to beat defending champion Wolfsburg 2-1 and stay undefeated.

Captain Mark van Bommel, Arjen Robben and Mario Gomez scored for Bayern after Mohamed Zidan had put Dortmund ahead. Bayern won its ninth straight match, while Dortmund fell to its third consecutive defeat.

Bayern and Leverkusen both have 48 points and have scored 48 goals, but Leverkusen has conceded one less goal.

Ruud van Nistelrooy scored his first Bundesliga goals, notching two in three minutes to give Hamburger SV a 3-1 win in Stuttgart. Werder Bremen thrashed Hannover 5-1 and Bochum beat Hoffenheim 2-1. Last-place Hertha Berlin drew 1-1 with Mainz.

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Aberdeen earned a 4-4 tie against Celtic that further dented the Glasgow club’s title ambitions.

The first half ended tied at 2-2 after goals from Diomansy Kamara and Marc-Antoine Fortune for Celtic were canceled out by Michael Paton and Darren Mackie.

Celtic went two ahead with goals from Robbie Keane and Aiden McGeady, but Aberdeen striker Steve MacLean reduced the deficit from the penalty spot before gettting a late goal.

Celtic, which had defender Darren O’Dea was sent off in the 90th minute, is seven points behind defending champion Rangers, which plays Hibernian on Sunday.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Giorgos Fotakis’ goal gave PAOK a 1-0 win at Giannena in the Greek league on Saturday.

The win moved the Thessaloniki club to second place with 47 points, five behind Panathinaikos and one ahead of Olympiakos. Panathinaikos hosts Kavala and Olympiakos travels to Asteras on Sunday.

In other matches, it was: Panthrakikos 1, AEK Athens 2 and Xanthi 0, Larissa 1.