Neil Warnock is interested in signing Tottenham midfielder Jermaine Jenas, according to The Sun.
The QPR boss is desperate to add Premier League experience to his squad and now has money to spend after Tony Fernandes’ takeover at Loftus Road.
Jenas has now emerged as a target for Warnock who was interested in signing the England international earlier in the summer.
A season long loan deal with a view to a £5 million permanent move is being considered by the West London club.
Despite the clock swiftly counting down to deadline day Warnock insisted he wouldn’t be spending money on impulse.
“It’s all right having money and making offers but getting them to sign and move on with you is a different ball game.” He told the Sun.
“In 10 days, I’ve got to do 12 weeks’ work. In an ideal world, we’ve always done it early.
“It wasn’t possible and we’ve just got to try to grasp this opportunity and strengthen the squad to give us a chance up to Christmas.”
Jenas is surplus to requirements at White Hart Lane and hasn’t started a game since 2nd April.
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Spurs boss Harry Redknapp is looking to move fringe players on to fund new signings and could open the door for Jenas to move to the Hoops.
The former Newcastle midfielder has won 21 caps for England and would certainly give Warnock a player overflowing with experience at domestic, European and international levels.
Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has admitted his side were nervous in their first Champions League game, which resulted in a 1-1 draw against Napoli at Eastlands on Wednesday night.
An Aleksandar Kolarov strike ensured the home side gained a point from their debut in Europe’s top club tournament, after Edinson Cavani had put the Serie A outfit into the lead.
With such high expectations on the big spending Premier League side, a draw may be seen as a failure, and Mancini has admitted that his team looked nervous.
“We were so nervous. It is normal. After many years we play our first game in the Champions League,” he told Sky Sports after the match.
“The first game is always difficult and it was difficult to play against Naples because they defend really well and when they’re on the counter attack they’re really dangerous.
“We conceded a goal because for 10 minutes in the second half we played so-so. But after that we played well, I’m happy. We wanted to win but the Champions League is hard. For us it was important to start well,” he continued.
Napoli looked assured in their first appearance in the tournament also, and Mancini admits he had warned his team about Walter Mazzarri’s team’s qualities.
“I told the guys, pay attention, because Naples are very good on the counter attack if we lose the ball. But we lost a stupid ball in the middle.
“We played one touch too many in the first half, for me. When we had a chance – one touch more. That’s all it is. If not (for that) I enjoyed this game,” he admitted.
With Bayern Munich and Villarreal also in a tricky Group A , City face a difficult task in progressing through to the knockout stages, but the Italian coach feels the Eastlands team will get an away win in their next fixture.
“We’ll win in Munich next game,” he concluded.
City now take on Fulham at Craven Cottage on Sunday, and will look to continue their 100 per cent Premier League record.
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And so we’re back. And after an eventful summer of rioting ruffians, dying divas and hack happy hacks it all boils down to one thing. Gary Neville has a big new pencil.
Having spent the best part of my summer attempting to write a sitcom pilot about a deviously immoral tabloid editor, but finding a dead eyed flame haired devil woman who beats up Grant Mitchell too hard to top, I’d resigned myself to superimposing Simpsons’ characters onto the heads of former News of The World Editors and making funny videos of David Starkey rapping.
The football transfer window had failed to interest me this year, perhaps partly due to my earnest focus on other pursuits or perhaps simply because of my endlessly dwindling respect for journalism, but as far as I could make out Wesley Sneijder signed for Manchester United 13 times, and once for Manchester City, but decided to stay in Milan 14 times, rendering the match a draw. Transfer muppetry has never interested me. It’s why I prefer PES to Football Manager.
Just as the summer looked like it had nothing more to offer, that joyous moment in the year arrived, when those long, painful weeks of pretending to be interested in Tennis and the news are brought to an end by the resumption of spoiled millionaires kicking an imitation pig bladder around grass for an hour and a half on Saturdays.
Except, not really, as the quaint and iconic notion of an exciting football Saturday has long been a relic of the past, and when it isn’t, it’s almost certainly not worth it unless you can wrench yourself out of bed before noon. And lets be honest, who can really be bothered to do that? (Ok, some of you. But I’ll bet you aren’t the cool ones.)
No, football is, and has increasingly been for sometime, a Sunday game. A Super Sunday game in fact. Or a Monday night game. Or a Tuesday and Wednesday game when the high-end, haute couture business of the Champions League rolls round. Or a Thursday game if your team is in the Europa Super Dooper Disco League. Or a Friday game if you’re glamour team in the Championship. In fact, if you’re not a loyal match going fan of a mid-to-lower-table club it’s pretty safe to say that watching football from an armchair of a week is pretty much an “every day but Saturday” pursuit (unless ESPN have a decent game on at tea time, but then they also have Kevin Keegan.) So as the richest and most watched league in the world geared up for lift off, it didn’t do so with it’s usual whoosh bang hullabaloo, and the Saturday passed without much fuss, the main talking points being the amount of diving and Joey Barton’s bizarre choice of hair.
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The most exciting and noteworthy occurrence comes on a Monday with the explosive debut of a new and promising addition to the English footballing establishment, whose name may already be widely known, but was never the less a pulsating and fascinating presence to watch in his new environment. By now there can surely be no doubt who talking about, it is of course, Gary Neville, making his tentative bow as the co-anchor of Monday Night Football, accompanied by a giant pencil.
The beardless wonder had already made an appearance as an uncomfortable spread legged pundit on Sunday, literally next to Jamie Redknapp, but on the Monday he was unleashed as the heir to Andy Gray, the D’Artagnan to Gray’s Porthos, set free to swashbuckle his way around the giant spaceship control room Sky broadcast from on MNF, his sword replaced, naturally, by the aforementioned giant pencil.
He started off with a hint of awkwardness, fiddling nervously with his big pencil (not a euphemism, though I’m sure it would’ve been had Richard Keys still been anchoring <insert joke about Richard Keys having lead in his pencil>) as Andy Gray no doubt bellowed at his television screen in frustration, his fingers twitching around a Ryman’s HP in empty, desperate longing, in the way an ex-smoker grasps a substitute in those early, will power testing days. But he soon picked up his stride and allayed any fears of partisanship by openly admiring the strengths of the Manchester City attack. He did this by moving some e-checkers around an e-Subbuteo pitch (with his e-pencil) and talked confidently and professionally of Swansea’s open attacking style despite his co-presenters erstwhile attempts to throw him off by comparing The Swans with Barcelona without cracking a smile.
By half time the Nevster was in full flight, abandoning the safety of his big pencil to massage a giant touch screen wall television that resembled some kind of microwave oven come iPad thing, and fiddled with a pointless looking rotating key with just the right amount of believability to convince us he was actually doing it, and not some bod-techs behind the scenes.
Full time brought his sternest test however, as he was charged with the task of interviewing Roberto Mancini and, still stranded literally meters from his desk and the comfort blanket of his big silly pencil, he was momentarily left all at sea as the words “Roberto, it’s Gary Neville” produced a baffled, unimpressed silence from the Italian. A hugely awkward pause and an embarrassing nervous laugh later and he regained his feet to ask some banal but serviceable questions about link up play before it was back to the desk to sign off, and fiddle some more with his inherited but now fully deserved giant pencil.
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All in all it was a solid debut. No nonsense and straight to the point, and despite some dodgy periods here and there, he held it together to see out the win. Much like in his playing days. And after mulling over the potential of Gary Neville’s Big Pencil as both a pub team & prospective third album name, (and a mildly fruitful, but ultimately rather pathetic attempt to get #GaryNevillesBigPencil trending on Twitter) I relaxed in grateful reassurance that the football season was finally back, and in safe hands. And so was the giant pencil.
You can follow Oscar on Twitter here, Twitter/oscarpyejeary where you can ask him what his other album names are, or simply berate him for wasting your time.
Martin O’Neill has ruled out a return to Leicester City, as the Championship club look for a new man to lead them in their search for promotion to the Premier League.
The King Power Stadium outfit sacked Sven Goran Eriksson earlier this week after an inconsistent start to the campaign, and the Northern Irish manager has been one of the frontrunners for the position according to the bookmakers.
Despite a highly successful period with the club between 1995 and 2000, and the fact that he has been out of work since leaving Aston Villa back in August 2010, the coach has ruled out a return to his former side according to The Guardian.
This means that the ambitious outfit will have to look elsewhere for a new man to take control, with Mark Hughes and Alan Shearer other names that have been thrown into the melting pot.
“I have to open my mind now. It is not just what the news or fans want,” Aiyawatt Raksriaksorn, the Leicester vice-chairman, has stated.
“I have to listen to everyone and [will] make a decision very carefully. The next manager should be taking us to the Premier League and I think he has to know this league because it’s very tough, very tight,” he concluded.
Leicester currently sit in 14th position in The Championship table, and face a difficult trip to take on West Ham at Upton Park on Saturday.
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England’s qualifying campaign for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil begins starts next year once again raising the hopes that our national team might finally progress past the quarter finals.
A pretty straight forward group stands in the way of the Three Lions and a new man is likely to be at the helm considering current boss Fabio Capello has declared that he’ll leave after next years European Championships.
With the supposed Golden Generation, the likes of Lampard, Gerrard and Terry, all ageing and on the way out it will be up to Capello or the new man to bring through the next batch of England stars.
Ian Wright recently gave his unique insight into who he thought would be in the starting eleven come to big kick off in 2014. (Read Here).
For England to succeed in the tournament they need a mix of young flair along with a few experienced heads. We’ve lacked any sort of leadership over the last couple of years with the captains armband being handed over more times than the box used during pass the parcel.
There are some quality young players out there who are playing regular football and will do for the next couple of years giving them some experience before the finals. Then there are the players who are more knowledgeable who will be used to the big game situations and will provide a calmer head.
I think that the 2014 World Cup could be England’s most successful of the modern era to date. Not saying we’ll win it but i’m certain the players that are coming through will put on a better show than the class of 2010.
So here is my prophesied England starting eleven for the 2014 World Cup Finals!
Click on Jack Wilshere to see the England XI for Brazil 2014 (should we qualify of course)
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It is 10 wins out of 11 for Tottenham Hotspur as the North Londoners close in at the top of the Premier League table. It could well be time for Harry Redknapp’s side to start believing in themselves and that they can challenge for more than a top four finish.
At FFC this week there has been various Tottenham blogs that include a long time coming for Scott Parker; Ledley King the best of his generation, while simply a marriage of convenience at White Hart Lane.
There is also a selection of the best blogs from around the web:
Why Tottenham have finally learnt their lesson
Ultimately a blessing in disguise for Tottenham?
Time to give credit where it is due at Tottenham?
A long time coming for Scott Parker
Simply a marriage of convenience at Tottenham?
What next for Luka Modric?
Ledley King – the best of a generation?
Tottenham look to bolster squad with double January raid
Redknapp to bolster squad with £9m January swoop
Wenger looking to beat Spurs with £25m January swoop
[divider]Best of WEB[divider][divider]
There is no Doomsday. Just All-Stars. – Dear Mr Levy
Adebayor bigger than Modric – Spurs Musings From JimmyG2
Everybody Out! – Harry Hotspur
The Real Deal – Tottenham On My Mind
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There was an article on FFC the other day resolving Cristiano Ronaldo of blame for his woeful performance in El Clasico recently. It made a fair point as well; you win games as a team and you lose games as a team. Ronaldo just happens to consistently be on the losing side. But it got me thinking about Ronaldo and what it means to be a truly great player. In many senses of the word Ronaldo is clearly great. His goal tally is consistently remarkable and he would clearly get in to any team in the world, perhaps with the exception of Barcelona. He is universally feared by defenders and is the most expensive player in the history of football. Sounds as though he’s ticking all the boxes so far right? However, surely part of being one of the great footballers to go down in history you have to display a level of consistency in the biggest games.
I know it is an easy pop to have at Ronaldo to say that he doesn’t always turn up for the big games but bear with me because it is an important criticism. How can a player be truly world class or great if he has an element to his game that is missing? Surely truly world-class players are also ‘complete’ players yet Ronaldo is consistently inconsistent in big games. In fact you could even go so far as to say that he is consistently poor in big games, by big games I mean the matches against Barcelona, the cup finals. Not because he doesn’t have the talent to succeed and outshine everyone else on the pitch, perhaps it is more of a mental problem.
People always praise Ronaldo for how well he handles criticism, and for how he seems to revel in the hatred that comes his way from opposition fans. However there are signs that this isn’t true. Take, for example, his comments after the Sevilla game where he scored a hat trick. He said: ‘that was to shut people up’, which is fine, but he then went on to say ‘not that I mind the criticism’. So which is it? That he doesn’t like criticism and the goals were to shut people up, or that he doesn’t care if people talk badly about him? It doesn’t really add up.
Personally I think that anyone as narcissistic as Ronaldo can’t take criticism. He doesn’t mind people booing him when he’s playing well but when he has played badly it’s another matter altogether. And this is where his problem lies. He is aware that because he hypes himself up so much he has to perform well in the big games. So in matches against Barcelona for Madrid, or when he was playing for Man Utd in the Champions League final against Barcelona his performances are not what you’d expect. This is because he feels as though he has to do everything on the pitch, he tries to do too much. Particularly in the Champions League final he forgot that he was part of a team. The result is that he not only turns out below-par individual performances, but he hinders the performances of the team. Take his chance against Barcelona recently. Where normally he is aware of the players around him he forgot in that instance to look for his team-mates. Instead of passing to Di Maria who would have had a far better chance of scoring he took a shot from the edge of the box, which missed. It is just a small example but it seems to sum up his mindset when playing in big games when the pressure is on.
Clearly then this is a problem he can resolve, all mental problems are solvable, but, with the one exception of the Copa del Rey final last year, it is a problem he has of yet failed to address. In fact the longer he goes without being the star of the show in the biggest games of the season, the worse the problem will become. It seems the harder he tries, the more ineffective he is. I’m not saying that he is a bad player, that would just be ridiculous. He is an excellent player, but can any Madrid fan really tell me that they would not swap two or even three of his goals against Sevilla for one against Barcelona? Because that is the criticism of Messi, that he doesn’t perform as consistently as Ronaldo against the smaller teams. However I would rather have a player who you knew would always perform in the biggest games even if he didn’t always score in the smaller games. It is not as though there are not other players on both teams that could score against the smaller sides, but when you are playing in a game as big and competitive as El Clasico then you need your best payers to step up and put in a performance. As I said before: it is a problem that Ronaldo can address, but will his ego let him?
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Well it was a clear penalty, wasn’t it? After all, he raised his hands, and that’s asking for trouble. By the letter of the law, the referee had no option. He had his hands out. It clearly struck his arm. He can have no complaints. I’ve seen them given. It brushed the elbow. You can’t do that in the penalty area.
Seriously, does anyone actually know the rules of the game for awarding penalties for hand ball? I’ll be damned if I do anymore. Is there any other rule in football whose written form is so consistently ignored? I always thought the rule was hand to ball, not ball to hand?
So what does the relevant law (12) state?
“…a direct free kick (or penalty) is awarded to the opposing team if a player…handles the ball deliberately”.
The problem is that the written rule is not really fit for purpose. The fact is, very few handballs are deliberate. If we were to truly interpret the hand ball rule by the letter of the law you’d hardly ever see a penalty given for hand ball. I reckon, using no evidence and just a few random thoughts floating round my head, that at least 90% of hand balls are not deliberate.
So clearly referees are being instructed to interpret the rule differently – and from reading far too much of the internet every day, it also seems widely acknowledged with football fans that it’s not to do with a deliberate act either.
There have been meetings about this before, resulting in advice being handed out to referees across the continent. Take the infamous (bear with me) UEFA Referees conference in 2004, which asked officials to consider the following points:
Was it a hand to ball situation or ball to hand?
Are the player’s hands or arm in a ‘natural’ position?
Should the player take the consequences of having his hand or arms lifted high?
Does the player try to avoid the ball striking his hand?
Is the player able to avoid the ball striking his hand?
Does he use his hand or arm to intentionally touch the ball?
In Fifa’s Laws of the Game 2005, the document fails to describe what constitutes deliberate handball, which places the responsibility firmly on the referee and referees’ assistants.
So as we all know, this rule isn’t always applied as written. When the ball strikes a hand or an arm which is well away from the body and all the stadium can see it, the referee will invariably give a free-kick/penalty whether it was deliberate or not – that, as we can see from above, is what they have been advised.
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Former Premier League referee David Elleray has previously reiterated the point that the referee’s interpretation depends on whether the hand or arm is in an “unnatural” position at the point of contact. “Referees look at two specifics – did the hand or arm go towards the ball or in a manner which would block the ball, or is the hand in a position where it would not normally be? The challenging decisions are if the defending player spreads their arms to make themselves bigger. If the ball hits the arm then the referee must decide whether this action was to deliberately block the ball or whether the player has raised their arms to protect themselves – especially if the ball is hit at speed.”
Graham Poll once said the same in in a column: “If a player deliberately makes himself big by raising his arms then he can have little argument if he is penalised when the ball is stopped by that unnaturally positioned arm.”
Though to be fair, this is a man that thinks a red card is handed out after three yellow cards.
Nowadays if the ball strikes a player within a foot of his arms or hands we are subjected to cries of “handball!” from the baying crowd. Games are turning into little more than pantomimes, with the defenders playing the villains. And whilst I am fairly happy with the advice that referees have been given on the matter, I have seen many a penalty given for a ball hitting an arm/hand by the side of the body (hardly unnatural now is it?) or when the arms/hands are in an unnatural position due to simply protecting themselves from harm.
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Where the ball would have gone without the intervention of the arm/hand is of course important. Because of the way handball is interpreted, I could certainly have no complaints about the penalty awarded against Joleon Lescott when Manchester City lost to Chelsea. However, take the Ivanovic handball in the Chelsea v Wigan match. I seem to be the only person on the planet (apart from the match referee) who thinks that it was not a penalty. His hand was in front of his chest, so the ball would have hit him anyway. Yes the ball was hit from some distance away, but we are still talking about a mere half a second or so from shot to hand, and there was certainly no deliberate act involved, more an impulse action to protect himself, done awkwardly.
Nor was Micah Richard’s versus Arsenal a penalty for that matter – a ball he didn’t see coming, from a cross that deflected on its way to him – games should not change on such trifling matters.
My personal opinion? I think there needs to be change. Goals should be earned. Penalties should be due to serious offences. Let’s drop this hysterical overreaction to a ball accidentally hitting someone’s arms or hands. A penalty is a big deal – it effectively gives a team a high probability of a goal. I don’t think we should be deciding games because of this obsession over a ball striking a certain part of the body. I just hope referees can ignore the howls of the crowd and remember the advice they received. In the same way that contact with another player in the penalty area is not automatically a penalty, contact with a hand isn’t either – I think too many penalties are being given, too many games shaped by innocuous events. Sometimes it really is a lottery.
An eclectic and eccentric view of football, business and management by media entrepreneur Chris Ingram.
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Shortly before Christmas, Manchester United announced that they were starting their own social network. Yes, under their own auspices, not on the back of Facebook!
“Typical bloody arrogance!” was the response of several people I spoke to. But that’s unsurprising in the world of sport where everything is in black and white: you either hate it or love it! But this is worth more analysis. Putting the hat back on that I used to wear as a Media Planner and with the help of my colleague at Sports Revolution, Josh Robinson, I asked myself 5 key questions:
1. Do they have a sufficiently large audience to justify the effort?
The answer is `Yes’. They claim over 300 million fans and from my travels I can well believe it. After all, this is a club that, when they go to Asia, 45,000 turn up to watch them train! And just as important, this is not a disparate group, it is an audience united by one distinct passion.
2. Do they have sufficient content?
To someone not interested in football, it’s difficult to believe they have but in the nutty, rabid world of football, fans feed on any bit of information – or gossip – and are happy to speculate endlessly about it. In principle, they definitely do have sufficient content.
[The average Facebook user spends around 55 minutes a day on Facebook, dipping in and out of many different interests. It will be fascinating to see the numbers on Man United’s network. Will the time spent be less, because there is less variety, or more because it’s driven by such a passion?] By going big in social media, Man United are committing themselves to going big with content but this is not just about volume.
Which brings me on to the next, very much linked question.
3. Is it `must have’ content? Will visitors be engaged? Will they hang around? Will the Club (and Sponsors) have the chance to sell them stuff?
Yes, indeed! So, thinking about opportunities to connect, let’s take you through the actions of a fan remembering that I’m of the generation that’s between paper and digital, not wholly digital.
So, before you say it, I am a typical Man United supporter, who doesn’t even go to the games! (“Ah, you’re a Man United fan eh? Live inside the M25 do you?!” etc etc.) But this time, that’s the point; 76,000 in a stadium is impressive but the audience outside is over 3,000 times bigger. And that’s the audience they’re going to be selling.
I read anything about the team in advance of the game, during the game and after it. In advance of the game – in my newspaper; on their website; and yes, on Football FanCast. I have a text service which, at 24p a pop, sends me texts on my mobile on injuries, suspensions; contract negotiations beforehand and then on the day, the team; goals scored as they go in; half time and full time summary. Or I might be seeing the match live on Sky, then definitely on Match of the Day; then I will read the Sunday and Monday reports. Yes, they’re all telling me the same thing but from a slightly different angle.
So, the pattern I described above, which is nowhere near as frenetic and `digitised’ as younger fans, amounts to over TWENTY different connections in a week, every week!
In the case of Woking FC, my `first team’, I go to the games of course, so the pattern is different but the reality is that smaller clubs can’t afford the marketing machine that a top Premiership club has (or should have). They don’t enjoy anywhere near the same economies of scale and they’re not remotely as interesting to advertisers.
If the content is “must have” will enough of it be unique to Man United? After all, there are literally hundreds of sites covering English Football. Creativity is going to be key – not a word one normally applies to those running even the smartest football clubs.
4. But does Man United have the experience?
If they are not going to be on Facebook they have to do a lot more themselves. They will certainly make mistakes but a lot of this will be about integrating many of the things they were already doing. For example, they have run MUTV for many years.
However, the key about a social network is that, if you act as an owner and try to control it, you will kill it. This is all about People Power – enabling and empowering people. The era of brand managers as control freaks is just about over. You can nudge and suggest to your audience but they’ll switch off if you try instructing them.
The vast number of breakaway unofficial club sites run by fans demonstrates how clubs like to exercise control and indeed, `censor’ copy. This is completely alien to the whole concept of social networks where the key is sharing content, regardless of where it has been sourced. That is a real art.
That is the real question: culturally, can Manchester United do that? We – and they- are about to find out.
5. Finally, what precedents are there?
As far as I know, there are none. Who could do it? In football, only the true global brands – Real Madrid and Barcelona and possibly, one or two others, which I’ll let you debate. But interestingly, outside sport, which brands could realistically set up their own social network, driven by an unending, insatiable appetite for news, info, speculation etc for their products? I can only think of Apple. There are many great global brands but surely none of them has those qualities?
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It would certainly be possible for a brand to `own’ a complete category or interest group so that one became for example, THE destination for `design’ or `DIY’. But it would take many years to achieve.
What this all does is to remind us of the phenomenal power of football brands; a power that `normal brands’ can only dream of.
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Chris Ingram is as passionate about football as he is about business. Owner of Woking Football Club, and a majority shareholder in the fast growing sports media business Sports Revolution, Chris is one of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs.
Recently celebrating 50 years in the media industry and still actively involved with Woking, Chris is ideally placed to comment on the business side of football.
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READ more of Chris Ingram’s work at our Football Business Section
Sunderland have booked their place in the FA Cup fifth round with a 2-1 win over Middlesbrough on Wednesday night.
The sides had drawn 1-1 in the initial fixture at the Stadium of Light, but the Premier League team triumphed in the replay at the Riverside Stadium.
Jack Colback had given the visitors the lead in the first half, only for Lukas Jutkiewicz to equalise for Tony Mowbray’s men, and force the game into extra time.
As game looked to be heading towards penalties, Stephane Sessegnon scored the winner with seven minutes remaining.
Martin O’Neill was pleased with the determination of his team, and is glad to progress through to the next stage of the tournament.
“I thought we were the better all-round football team and I’m delighted that we won the game,” the Northern Irish coach told Sky Sports.
“It’s a fantastic effort by the players. I thought they did exceptionally well. I thought we were comfortable when we conceded the goal and in a thrilling Cup tie we’re through.”
The Bantams will now face Arsenal in the next round of the competition, and also host Arsene Wenger’s men in the Premier League this weekend.
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