Manchester United 4-1 Newcastle United

April 17, 2005

Manchester United made it to the FA cup final after a 4-1 thrashing of Newcastle United at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff today.

Manchester United, the holders always dominated the game and it only took 19 minutes for Ruud van Nistelrooy to break the deadlock. It appeared that the referee Mike Reilly had awarded a penalty to the red devils, but it was a freekick Newcastle's way for Cristiano Ronaldo's dive. Paul Scholes added his name to the score sheet just before half-time with a header.

The game was effectively over when Van Nistelrooy scored another one on 58 minutes, a side-foot past Newcastle's 'keeper Shay Given. A minute later and Newcastle scored through Shola Ameobi, but all hopes of a Newcastle come back were quashed when Cristiano Ronaldo capitalised on van Nistelrooy's generosity to shoot home to make it 4-1 to the reds.

Manchester United will meet Arsenal in the FA Cup final in May.

Newcastle

 * Team: Given, Carr, Boumsong, Taylor, Babayaro (Andrew O'Brien 45), Milner (Kluivert 63), Faye (N'Zogbia 45), Butt, Robert, Ameobi, Shearer.
 * Subs Not Used: Harper, Ambrose.
 * Booked: Milner, Robert.
 * Goals: Ameobi 59.

Manchester United

 * Team: Howard, Gary Neville, Brown, Ferdinand, Heinze, Ronaldo (Smith 78), Keane, Scholes (Fletcher 78), Fortune, Rooney (Giggs 78), Van Nistelrooy.
 * Subs Not Used: Carroll, Silvestre.
 * Booked: Ronaldo, Brown, Heinze.
 * Goals: van Nistelrooy 19, Scholes 45, van Nistelrooy 58, Ronaldo 76.

Att: 69,280 Ref: M Riley (W Yorkshire).