Chelsea beats Arsenal 2-1 to reach FA Cup final

LONDON — Didier Drogba scored with six minutes left to give Chelsea a 2-1 win over Arsenal on Saturday and a place in the FA Cup final on May 30.

Chelsea advanced to its second final in three years and will play for the title against the winner of Sunday’s semifinal between Manchester United and Everton. This was Chelsea’s first FA Cup win over Arsenal since 1947.

Theo Walcott gave Arsenal an 18th-minute lead at Wembley and Florent Malouda tied it in the 32nd. Drogba broke away on the winning goal and Frank Lampard drove a high ball behind the Arsenal defense from deep in his own half. Drogba beat Mikael Silvestre, dribbled around goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski and rolled the ball into an empty net.

“It’s very nice to work with these guys,” Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink said. “They always deliver.”

Hiddink is in charge only until the end of the season, then returns to his full-time job as coach of Russia’s national team. He said it would be a fitting to lead the team in the final of soccer’s oldest and most famous domestic cup competition.

“Hopefully we will celebrate with a nice bottle of champagne,” the Dutchman said.

Fabianski, playing on his 24th birthday, was in the game in place of Manuel Almunia. He had been lucky not to concede a goal on a similar error in the first half and was partly at fault for Malouda’s tying goal.

“He’s a great goalkeeper but it was not his greatest day,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. “Inexperience, yes. It was a game when any mistake could be costly.”

In the Premier League, Sunderland and Stoke boosted their chances of avoiding relegation with 1-0 wins.

Stoke beat visiting Blackburn through a 75th-minute goal by Liam Lawrence to move nine points clear of the relegation zone, and Djibril Cisse scored just before halftime to send Sunderland past Hull.

Stoke, playing in the top tier for the first season since 1985, looks to be safe from dropping. Sunderland is still in danger despite moving above Blackburn and Hull into 15th place.

Wolverhampton Wanderers became the first club this season to gain promotion to the Premier League after a 1-0 win over visiting Queens Park Rangers. Charlton was relegated again, this time to League One, following its 2-2 draw with Blackpool.

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FRANKFURT (AP) — Wolfsburg won its 10th straight game by beating Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 on goals from Grafite to remain three points ahead of defending Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich, which won 1-0 at Arminia Bielefeld.

Grafite converted a penalty kick and then notched the winning goal in the 85th for a league-high 22 goals. Luca Toni scored in the second half for Bayern.

Wolfsburg now has 57 points and Bayern 54, with six games remaining for both sides.

“They dominated us in the second half and were clearly the better team,” said Wolfsburg’s coach Felix Magath, who won two titles with Bayern.

Stuttgart moved into third place by winning 3-0 in Cologne behind a hat trick from Mario Gomez.

The 2007 Bundesliga champion has 51 points. Hamburger SV also has 51 and can pull ahead of Stuttgart if its beats Hannover on Sunday.

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GENOA, Italy (AP) — Genoa’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League took a hit with a 1-0 loss to Lazio.

Mauro Zarate sprinted past the defense in the 65th minute, beating Brazilian goalkeeper Rubinho with an angled shot for his 12th goal of the season, ending Genoa’s four-game winning streak.

Genoa is still fourth with 57 points, two ahead of fifth-place Fiorentina, but it risks being overtaken when Fiorentina visits Udinese on Sunday.

The top four finishers in Serie A qualify for the Champions League. Lazio has won two straight after beating AS Roma 4-2 in a derby last weekend and is now seventh with 47 points.

In Turin, defender Zdenek Grygera scored on a header in added time to earn 10-man Juventus a 1-1 draw with Inter Milan, although it may have not been enough to prevent Inter from clinching its fourth successive Serie A title.

Teenager Mario Balotelli scored in the 64th minute for Inter and Juventus midfielder Tiago Mendes was shown a red card in the 76th.

Inter remained 10 points ahead of Juventus with six rounds remaining in the Italian league. Third-place AC Milan faces Torino on Sunday.

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GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink scored for the fourth straight game to help Celtic to a 2-0 win over Aberdeen and stay on course for a fourth straight Scottish Premier League title.

The Dutch striker put Celtic ahead following Shunsuke Nakamura’s 43rd-minute corner kick. Scott McDonald scored his 18th goal of the season nine minutes into the second half.

Celtic leads Rangers by four points, although its fierce city rival is at Hibernian on Sunday.

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MADRID (AP) — Lionel Messi’s 20th league goal gave Barcelona a 1-0 victory at Getafe while Real Madrid beat Recreativo Huelva 1-0 to keep pace with the Spanish leader.

Messi held off Cata Diaz’s challenge in the 19th minute to receive a pass in front of goal before moving past two defenders to shoot through the defense, with the ball taking a deflection past goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic. It was the Argentina winger’s 33rd goal in all competitions this season.

Stojkovic kept Getafe in the contest with a handful of acrobatic stops, including from Messi and Thierry Henry, but the relegation-threatened club could only muster one shot on goal in the pouring rain.

Barcelona’s sixth straight win improved it to 78 points — six better than Madrid — as it tries to snap a three-year trophyless drought.

Atletico Madrid maintained its hopes of finishing in the top four and earning a spot in next season’s Champions League with a 3-0 win against second-bottom Numancia.

Ever Banega, Diego Forlan and Sabrosa Simao scored second-half goals at the Vicente Calderon stadium for Atletico to tie fourth-place Valencia with 49 points. Valencia plays Sevilla, which is third with 57 points, on Sunday.

In Saturday’s other matches, Malaga rallied for a 1-1 draw against Mallorca to pick up a point in its chase for a top-four finish while Deportivo La Coruna scored late to beat Athletic Bilbao 1-0 and maintain its own European hopes.