Nicolas Anelka scored three times as Chelsea came from behind to beat Watford 3-1 on Saturday to reach the FA Cup quarterfinals. Second from last in the League Championship, Watford survived a long spell of Chelsea pressure at Vicarage Road to go ahead on a breakaway goal from Tamas Priskin in the 69th minute. But Chelsea – which replaced manager Luis Felipe Scolari with Guus Hiddink who on Monday takes over on a temporary basis until the end of the season – hit back when Anelka scored with a close range overhead kick from Frank Lampard's corner in the 75th minute. Two minutes later the France striker met a cross from Ashley Cole to guide a header inside the near post. Seconds after goalkeeper Petr Cech blocked what would have been a Watford equalizer by Jobi McAnuff, Chelsea broke upfield and Anelka spun to fire the third with his left foot and make Chelsea the first team to advance to the quarterfinal stage of the competition. Saturday's other four games were drawn – Blackburn-Coventry was 2-2, West Ham-Middlesbrough ended 1-1, Hull was held 1-1 by Sheffield United and Fulham could only draw 1-1 at Swansea. In the only Premier League game, Portsmouth beat Manchester City 2-0 five days after firing manager Tony Adams. Pompey outplayed City at Fratton Park and capitalized with an angled shot by Glen Johnson in the 70th minute and a powerful header by Hermann Hreidarsson five minutes later. Portsmouth goalkeeper David James set a Premier League record of 536 appearances and marked it with a shutout as Pompey did not concede for the first time in 11 league games. The result means that City stays ninth in the standings while Portsmouth moved up one place to 15th, four points above the relegation zone. Barcelona rallies Samuel Eto'o scored two goals – including a late equalizer – as leader Barcelona rallied from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Real Betis on Saturday and stretch its unbeaten run to 22 league games. Betis was two goals up within 25 minutes through Juan “Melli” Andreu and Mark Gonzalez before Eto'o scored off the rebound from his saved penalty in the 45th for his 100th league goal for Barcelona. The Cameroon striker's shot in the 84th needed a slight deflection to get past Betis goalkeeper Ricardo Soares, who looked set to hand Barcelona its first loss since opening day with the Portugal goalkeeper making several fine saves towards the end of the game, including a point-blank volley by Gerard Pique in the 82nd. Barcelona saw a 10-game winning streak snapped, however, as it moved to 60 points after Eto'o took his league-leading goal tally to 23. Real Madrid can get to within 10 points of its arch rival when it travels to Sporting Gijon on Sunday, where it will look to stretch out its seven game winning streak without Netherlands midfielders Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Rafael Van der Vaart. In a match where two teams fought to finish in the top-four to earn a Champions League place, Malaga and Valencia drew 1-1. Valencia stays third with 38 points while Malaga is sixth with 36 points. Also Saturday, Osasuna held Deportivo La Coruna to a 0-0 draw at El Riazor stadium. Lazio, Napoli drop points Lazio and Napoli dropped points in their pursuit of European qualification places with 1-1 draws in the Serie A on Saturday. Lazio came from behind to draw with Torino, which remains in the relegation zone, while Napoli was held at home by Bologna. Napoli was eighth in the standings with 35 points, six points out of the top four. Lazio was 11th with 32. With Lazio winless in its last four matches and Torino having only one win in 12, both teams began nervously.
