Birmingham Shock Arsenal win Carling Cup

 

Birmingham City produced a huge surprise by beating Arsenal in the Carling Cup final at Wembley Stadium to win their first major trophy since 1963. Arsenal, who have not had a trophy since 2005, were the firm favorites to win the cup before the game. taking into account their high position in the League, their fluid football and the fact that Birmingham had only beaten Arsenal once in the entire history of the Premier League.

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Birmingham hadn't read the script and lunged forward from the start, in just the second minute Lee Bowyer charged into Arsenal's penalty area and was brought down by goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, which ประวัติทีมอาร์เซนอล a sure penalty and a red card. direct. the linesman did not controversially mark Bowyer as offside. The replays clearly showed he was offside and the Birmingham players were rightly outraged.

Justice seemed to have prevailed when after 28 minutes Serbian giant Nikola Zigic jumped everyone to lead the Blues to an unexpected lead. Birmingham were not intimidated by their rivals and showed great stamina and determination against the favorites, and could have scored a second had they not been in poor control so as not to disappoint them.

Arsenal, lacking the injured club captain Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott, soon recovered and it was a moment of great football that saw Arsenal score the equalizer in the 39th minute. Jack Wilshere's fearsome shot shook the crossbar from Birmingham's goal and the rebound was crossed by Arshavin for Van Persie to sweep in a brilliant volley. With the score at 1-1, Ben Foster made a good save from an effort by Sami Nasri to ensure his team reached the break in terms of level.

Arsenal started the second half with enthusiasm as Tomas Rosicky approached with a deflected shot, the Gunners onslaught gained momentum and the Blues were in debt to goalkeeper Ben Foster, who made a series of good saves from Samir Nasri Andrey Arshavin and alternate Nicklas Bendtner. Later, Foster received the man of the match award for his outstanding performance.

However, Birmingham were not only tough on defense, they also showed ambition of their own and alarm bells should have sounded in Arsenal's defense when Keith Fahey's shot caused the goalkeeper to be hit but hit the inside of the post.

As the match seemed destined for extra time, manager Alex McLeish made the courageous decision to bring in another forward, Obafemi Martins, who then pounced on a disastrous confusion between Arsenal goalkeeper Szczesny and defender Laurent Koscielny as they both went for the same ball and they left. Martins to throw the ball into the empty goal in the 89th minute.

Despite four minutes of injury time, Arsenal now looked like a beaten team and Martins could have added another goal if he hadn't worked up the ball too much. Birmingham held out for the historic victory, only their second major trophy in their history, while Arsenal are left wondering about another missed opportunity to claim a trophy.