West Ham United beat Burnley in fifth round of FA Cup
West Ham United thrashed Burnley 5-1 in the fifth round of the FA Cup at Upton Park on Monday evening. A brace from Carlton Cole and a goal each from Freddie Sears, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Thomas-Hitzlsperger-c34961 helped the Hammers cruise into the quarter-finals.
Manager Avram Grant made three changes to his side that drew 3-3 against West Bromwich Albion last weekend. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Costa-c9458, Luis Boa Morte and Gary O’Neil were replaced with Freddie Sears, Hitzlsperger and James Tomkins. Hitzlsperger made his long awaited
debut after signing for the club in July 2010. Burnley boss Eddie Howe made only one change to his line-up that drew 1-1 against Cardiff City last weekend. Chris Iwelumo was replaced by Wade Elliot.
Both teams started the first half at a brisk pace, as they looked to make early inroads. West Ham tried to disrupt the visitors by playing long-balls up to their strikers early on. The first chance of the game fell to the hosts when Carlton Cole surged into
the box from the left wing and looped the ball to Hitzlsperger in the box. The German however, miscued a volley and it went narrowly past the far post.
The hosts then put some concerted pressure on the Burnley defence, and finally opened the scoring in the 23rd minute. Hitzlsperger received the ball in the box and rifled a shot into the top left corner to make it 1-0 for the hosts. Moments later,
the visitors came close to equalising but http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chris-c9006 Eagles 20-yard strike. The Hammers were clearly the dominant side in the first half, and they could have scored at least three or four goals. At the break though, the score
was one nil.
West Ham continued to attack in the second half and were rewarded, as they doubled their lead soon after the restart. Cole was played through and managed to spring the offside trap, but after a great first touch his second took the ball away from him. However,
the Burnley keeper failed to gather the ball cleanly, which allowed Cole to somehow bundle it into the net to give the Hammers a 2-0 lead.
Two minutes later, Cole scored another. The tall striker beautifully controlled another long ball and struck it past the Burnley defenders and into the top right corner to make it 3-0. The game looked dead and buried for the visitors, as West Ham extended
their lead to four goals. Reid headed the ball in from close range from Hitzlsperger’s corner kick, as the Hammers toyed with the Burnley defence.
After scoring three goals in 11 minutes, the hosts were cruising. In the 71st minute, Burnley managed to get a consolation goal after some poor play from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Wayne-Bridge-c36733 and Robert Green. Bridge played a horrendous back pass to Green,
who played it into the path of Jay Rodriguez and the striker nodded it into the empty net to make it 4-1.
The hosts then rounded off the scoring by adding another goal just before the full time whistle. Sears was found unmarked in the Burnley penalty area and the young striker drilled the ball into the net to seal the game at 5-1. West Ham United next play Stoke
City in the quarter-finals of the competition in March.
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