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Kanu Scored the Only Goal of the Game at Wembley

Nigeria Today
7th April'08

West Brom 0-1 Portsmouth

A second-half goal from Kanu was enough to send Portsmouth through to their first FA Cup final in 69 years. Ex-West Brom striker Kanu side-footed an easy chance to see off the Baggies after Dean Kiely had denied Milan Baros and Zoltan Gera had failed to clear. Baros, who looked to have handled in the build-up to the goal, missed a simple chance to seal the win. They were almost made to pay but Robert Koren's shot hit the bar and Ishmael Miller fired wide late on. Portsmouth will face the winners of the all-Championship tie between Barnsley and Cardiff on Sunday in the final.

Their win carries on the top flight's run of having a team in every FA Cup final. Pompey were already odds-on favourites to lift the trophy before the game, but for long periods it was West Brom who looked the better bet for a return to Wembley on 17 May. Harry Redknapp's south coast side were not at the races during a lacklustre first-half display and it Albion who looked like the Premier League thoroughbreds.

Heartbreaking

To dominate Portsmouth then lose to a goal coming from handball from Baros Portsmouth's defensive pair of Sol Campbell and Sylvain Distin struggled throughout to deal with veteran forward Kevin Phillips dropping deep. The former Southampton striker found plenty of space and tested Pompey early on with a long-range shot just over the bar before a neat lay-off that ended with Zoltan Gera causing problems for a fumbling David James with a low shot.

Portsmouth were all at sea going forward, with Baros wasteful and Kanu barely contributing as Redknapp looking increasingly agitated on the sidelines. They enjoyed their best spell of the first half shortly before the break but Redknapp, on his first appearance in the FA Cup semi-finals and at Wembley as player or manager, would have had strong words at the interval. There appeared to be little immediate change in Pompey's play, but less than 10 minutes after the break they broke the deadlock. Glen Johnson played a ball into Baros, who may have controlled the ball with his arm before getting off a shot which Kiely did well to keep out.

West Brom: Kiely, Hoefkens, Albrechtsen, Clement, Robinson, Morrison, Koren, Gera, Greening, Bednar, Phillips. Subs: Danek, Kim, Miller, Pele, Brunt.

Portsmouth: James, Johnson, Campbell, Distin, Hreidarsson, Diarra, Diop, Muntari, Kranjcar, Kanu, Baros. Subs: Ashdown, Lauren, Nugent, Davis, Pedro Mendes.

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