After dominating till the 60th minute, Arsenal started faltering in their midfield play as Birmingham City pushed forwards. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roger-Johnson-c31524 went down with a calf injury in the 63rd minute of the match but Birmingham’s
talismanic center back soon recovered with minimal medical treatment as the match was resumed just after 30 second break. In the 67th minute of the match, Tomasz Rosicky was in a wonderful position to play a cross field pass to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Samir-Nasri-c32360 inside
the Birmingham penalty area.
However, the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Czech-Republic-c2882 international was wayward with his pass as Ferguson intercepted the ball and initiated a dangerous Birmingham counter attack. Nonetheless, Alexander Song was on hand to break down yet another Blues attack
as the Gunners regained possession of the ball. In the 70th minute of the match, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Robin-van-Persie-c31380. This was Arsenal’s first substitution of the match.
In the 72nd minute of the match, Samir Nasri found himself in space just outside of the Arsenal penalty area but his weak effort was easily handled by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ben-Foster-c7445 in the end as Arsenal started to look short of ideas in
the final third of the field near the end of the second half. Bendtner’s arrival provided the Gunners with a much more viable physical threat in front of Birmingham’s goal but it took away the guile and craft that Van Persie provided throughout the first half
for the London club.
In the 75th minute, Birmingham City were let off the hook by Arsenal as Samir Nasri failed to finish a glorious opportunity that fell his way following a blitzkrieg like counter attack. The Frenchman’s shot was well
saved by Foster and the follow up blast by Bendtner was also palmed away by the English goalkeeper as the score line remained at 1-1 at the Wembley Stadium. In the 78th minute, Foster again saved Birmingham’s blushes as Rosicky’s back heel was wonderfully
cleared away by the ex-Manchester United shot stopper.
In the 76th minute, Arsenal made their second substitution of the night as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Andrei-Arshavin-c5771. Birmingham adopted a counter attacking strategy in the last ten minutes of the first half
as Alex McLeish brought on http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Bacary-Sagna-c7148 who whose long throw inn was cleared by Ferguson towards
Martins but the ex-Wolfsburg striker was brought down by Clichy as any hopes Birmingham’s quick counter attack were brought to a halt.
In the 88th minute of the match, Martins was on hand to take the advantage of a stupendous mistake by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Laurent-Koscielny-c21742. There was confusion inside the Arsenal penalty area due to lack of communication between Koscielny
and Szczesny as a result the ball fell to Obafemi Martins who tapped the ball into the back of an empty Arsenal net to gift his team the Carling Cup final as the score line reached 2-1 to the Birmingham club. The match ended with a Birmingham cup win in the
end as Arsenal were left shell shocked in a great end to a fantastic cup final.
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