This season's FA Cup will be won by a team from London or Liverpool after Tottenham and Everton triumphed on Tuesday to set up capital and Merseyside semi-final derbies at Wembley next month. Spurs beat Bolton Wanderers 3-1 in an FA Cup quarter-final after the original tie was abandoned following the collapse of Bolton's Fabrice Muamba.
They will now face fellow London club Chelsea in the last four. Meanwhile, in a quarter-final replay, Everton won 2-0 away at Sunderland to set up a semi-final match against local rivals Liverpool, who've already won the League Cup at Wembley this season.
At White Hart Lane, goals late on from New Zealand's Ryan Nelsen and Gareth Bale appeared to have settled Spurs' nerves before Bolton striker Kevin Davies pulled one back for the visitors in the 90th minute. However, Louis Saha sealed Tottenham's win with the last kick of the match in stoppage time. Bolton goalkeeper Adam Bogdan made several excellent saves for the visitors before Tottenham's pressure was rewarded when, 16 minutes from time, central defender Nelsen headed in from a corner.
And three minutes later, with Bolton chasing the game, Wales winger Bale finished off a counter-attack initiated by speedy striker Jermain Defoe. The original tie, at White Hart Lane on March 17, was abandoned shortly before half-time after Bolton midfielder Muamba collapsed with a cardiac arrest in an incident that sparked world-wide concern.
"I think there was obviously an important football match to play in the end," said Bolton manager Owen Coyle. "The events of 10 days ago were fresh and it was an opportunity for everybody to say thanks for the support. "Our lads were brave, Bogdan was outstanding. At 2-0 it would have been easy to feel sorry but we kept going. It was a terrific advert for football. "When the draw was made I thought we were paired with the best team in football and we will see if that proves to be true."
Bale, bidding to be a member of the first Tottenham team to win the FA Cup since 1991, said: "We've had a long hard season, we've shown how we want to get off the bad run and keep improving. "Everybody wants to win the FA Cup. We have got a great chance, we've got tough opponents against Chelsea but we will give it our best shot to win."
In the north-east, after a 1-1 draw at Goodison Park, Everton won through thanks to a first half goal from Nikica Jelavic before Sunderland's David Vaughan turned Jelavic's cross into his own net at the Stadium of Light in the 57th minute. Everton's Australia midfielder Tim Cahill told ITV afterwards: "Regardless of Liverpool I think it was all about us today. "The manager (David Moyes) knows what we're capable of and it's about time we did something like this, and hopefully we're going to move forward." The semi-finals will be played at Wembley on the weekend of April 14-15.
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