Now, they played against each other again. Last time City knocked out United out of the competition with a 1-0 win courtesy of a Yaya Toure Goal in the 52^nd minute. Expectations were high from key players like David de Gea who is known for his goalkeeping skills in the Manchester United team.

This was really a head to head battle to watch. Wayne Rooney was also expected to show some marvelous goal hitting performance in this match because of his solid performance in front of 75,322 people at Old Trafford.

It was a cakewalk for the Chelsea team as they defeated Cardiff by 4-1 in the FA Cup quarter-finals that was played on Saturday. The team was at its brilliant best in the second half of the match. The fifth round match of the Premier League leaders ended with a score of 1-1 at the first half when the Michael Chopra scored the equalizer to the second minute goal of Didier Drogba. However, Chelsea took full control of the match with Ballack, Sturridge and Kalou all coming to the party and scoring a goal each to extend the club’s undefeated homerun to a total of 37 matches.

The assistant manager of the Club, Ray Wilkins admitted that the team had to face a lot of trouble in the first half of the match, but they succeeded to take control of the proceedings in the second half. Meanwhile the clash between the Manchester United and Stoke ended in a draw while Portsmouth earned a 4-1 victory over their rival Southampton. Jimmy Kebe of Reading scored one of the fastest goals of the tournament but could not prevent the draw with West Bromwich Albion.

Birmingham managed to get the better of Derby thanks to the last minute winner by Liam Ridgewell. The elimination of Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal from the FA Cup meant that Chelsea was the only top club in action on the weekend. Chelsea was without the services of their captain John Terry and Ashley Cole in the match.

Sunday saw one of the biggest upsets of the FA Cup when Leeds knocked Manchester United out of the competition. Leeds thanks to the 19th minute goal by Jermaine Beckford won their first game at the Old Trafford after 1981. No other team had been able to knock Manchester United out of the third round apart from Bournemouth who achieved the feat in 1984. Alex Ferguson took charge of the Manchester United in 1986 and since then the club has been able to get their hands on the trophy on as many as five occasions and hold a record 11 FA Cup triumphs overall.

Leeds who has just one FA Cup title has a tough draw ahead in the next round to Tottenham. The once powerful team slipped though when they were hit by some major financial troubles. The poor performance by the Premier League Champions of the last three seasons had Ferguson scathing. The defeat came as a big shock for Ferguson who had not expected it at all. He admitted that Leeds played like tigers, which was expected of every team in a FA Cup tie. He also said that the Beckford’s great pace had his team napping and felt very disappointed at the loss.

Chelsea on the other hand had a comprehensive victory over Watford as they defeated them 5-0 to make it to the fourth round of the competitions. Daniel Sturridge scored two goals while Florent Malouda and Frank Lampard had one each and the other one came from John Eustace of Watford when he put the ball into his own net.