Associated Press

London, March 13:

Arsenal and Manchester United reached the English FA Cup semi-finals on Saturday, gaining some consolation after being knocked out of the Champions League earlier in the week. The Gunners beat Bolton 1-0 on Freddie Ljungberg’s third-minute goal. Bolton played with only 10 men for the last 81 minutes after El Hadji Diouf was sent off for striking Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann. Defending champion Manchester United piled it on at Southampton, winning 4-0 on goals by Roy Keane, Cristiano Ronaldo and two from Paul Scholes. Ljungberg’s goal in the third minute was all Arsenal needed. The Swedish forward notched his 13th of the season when he scored off a perfect through-ball from Robert Pires. Man U’s Keane scored after only 87 seconds when his deflected shot got behind Saints’ goalkeeper Paul Smith. In first-half injury time, Ronaldo rammed home a shot off a pass from Ruud van Nistelrooy. Scholes got the third in the 48th and wrapped up the scoring with his second in the 87th.

Spanish La Liga

MADRID: Ludovic Giuly scored one goal and nearly had another, and FC Barcelona beat Athletic Bilbao 2-0 to open up an 11-point lead over second-place Real Madrid in the Spanish league. Real Betis beat Malaga 2-1 in the only other match, and moved to fourth thanks to goals by Juanito Gutierrez in the fifth minute and Edu Schmidt 13 minutes later. Giuly pounced on a cross from Ronaldinho and powered a shot from the right that bounced in off the left post in the 39th minute for Barcelona. Deco got things going in the 20th when he hit a powerful shot from the right side that went into the net off defender Luis Prieto’s knees.

Barcelona leads the league with 65 points, followed by Madrid with 54 and Espanyol on 45.

Italian Serie A

ROME: Inter Milan was held to 1-1 by 10-man Lazio, losing more ground to co-leaders AC Milan and Juventus with a record 17th draw in the Serie A. Earlier, second-half goals by Martin Jorgensen and Christian Maggio rallied Fiorentina to 2-2 at Lecce. Lazio led Inter Milan 1-0 at halftime courtesy of a successful combination by twins Emanuele and Antonio Filippini. Antonio scored in the 45th minute with a header off a cross from Emanuele. But Lazio’s hopes of victory were hurt in the 55th when Giuliano Giannichedda was ejected after getting a second yellow card. Inter evened the score with a 70th-minute header by Julio Ricardo Cruz. With a record of 10-17-1 Inter tied Sampdoria in third place, with 47 points, 13 behind the leading pair.