Arsenal and Chelsea reach League Cup quarterfinals
Arsenal and Chelsea overcame English Premier League opponents to reach the League Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday, with the Gunners beating Liverpool 2-1 and the Blues routing Bolton 4-0.
Fran Merida and Nicklas Bendtner scored for a mostly second-string Arsenal against similarly weakened opponents as rival managers Arsene Wenger and Rafa Benitez continued to rate Englands second cup competition low on their priorities.
But Premier League leader Chelsea fielded a strong side to easily beat visiting Bolton, while Manchester City also drew upon its experienced players to outclass Scunthorpe 5-1.
Liverpool was coming off a surprise 2-0 win over Manchester United and Arsenal a disappointing 2-2 draw at lowly West Ham, but the starting lineups on Wednesday showed a total of 20 changes from those matches to make predicting a result at Emirates Stadium especially tricky.
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ROME - Brazilian striker Amauri scored twice as Juventus routed Sampdoria 5-1 to jump ahead of Genoa into second place in the Serie A.
Amauri found the target in the 26th and 62nd minutes, raising his tally to four in Juventus last three games. Giorgio Chiellini, Mauro Camoranesi and David Trezeguet also scored for Juventus and Giampaolo Pazzini had a goal for the visitors.
Everything worked to perfection, Juventus coach Ciro Ferrara said. We were coming off a few negative results but were bouncing back. This is Juventus real spirit.
Ten-man AC Milan squandered a two-goal lead in a 2-2 draw at Napoli, for which Luca Cigarini and German Denis scored in injury time after Filippo Inzaghi and Alexandre Pato had put Milan up 2-0 after only five minutes.
Inter Milan, which hosts Palermo in Thursdays lone match, leads with 22 points. Juventus was second with 21, Sampdoria has 20 and Parma was fourth with 17.
Freshly promoted Parma beat Bari 2-0 with goals from Valeri Bojinov and Alberto Paloschi, and Genoa edged Fiorentina 2-1 with a 74th-minute strike from Giandomenico Mesto.
Antonio Floro Flores scored twice as Udinese beat AS Roma 2-1 in a match in which both teams ended with 10 men.
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FRANKFURT - Bayern Munich crushed Eintracht Frankfurt 4-0 to storm into the quarterfinals of the German Cup.
Miroslav Klose scored twice, and Thomas Mueller scored one and set up two, including Luca Tonis for Bayern. It was Tonis first goal in a season that began late for the Italy striker because of an Achilles tendon injury.
Cup holder Werder Bremen and Schalke also cruised into the quarterfinals by beating second-division opposition by identical 3-0 scores.
Hoffenheim routed second-division Koblenz 4-0.
