LONDON — Arsenal was booed off the field after suffering a second humiliation in two months against lower league opponents when Blackburn Rovers beat it 1-0 in the fifth round of the FA Cup Saturday. Manager Arsene Wenger's gamble to leave out a batch of first-team regulars against Championship (second tier) Rovers backfired as Colin Kazim-Richards struck a 72nd minute winner to send Rovers into the quarterfinals. Tomas Rosicky came closest to scoring for Arsenal with a thumping shot against the crossbar and Rovers had to survive some furious pressure as the hosts belatedly showed some urgency, but it was too little too late. With the daunting prospect of Bayern Munich in the last 16 of the Champions League to come next week, Arsenal is facing an eighth successive season without a trophy. It was knocked out of the League Cup on penalties by fourth tier side Bradford in December, although the defeat by Blackburn was Arsenal's first in the FA Cup against a lower division side under Wenger's stewardship. In an otherwise low-key day of FA Cup action Luton Town's hopes of becoming the first minor league club to reach the quarterfinals for 99 years ended in a 3-0 home defeat by Championship side Millwall. Barnsley, also of the Championship, took their place in the last eight with a 3-1 victory at MK Dons. Leverkusen wins Striker Stefan Kiessling scored one goal and set up the other as Bayer Leverkusen beat Augsburg 2-1 Saturday to reclaim second place in the Bundesliga. Kiessling headed in a Gonzalo Castro free-kick in the 26th minute, to join Bayern Munich's Mario Mandzukic as top scorer with 15 goals this season. The forward, who has been regularly snubbed by Germany coach Joachim Loew, then set up Lars Bender in the 77th to lift Leverkusen to 41 points with its first win in four games. Sascha Moelders grabbed a deserved goal for the visitors in the 89th but it came too late. Runaway leader Bayern Munich is top on 57 points after its 2-0 victory at VfL Wolfsburg Friday with Mandzukic and Dutchman Arjen Robben on target. Champions League competitor Schalke 04 had new signing Michel Bastos to thank for a 2-2 draw at Mainz 05. The Brazilian twice cancelled out a Mainz lead including his 82nd minute equaliser for his third goal since joining in the winter transfer window. Schalke is in eighth place on 30 points after winning just one of their last 11 games. Hamburg moved into contention for a European spot, beating Borussia Moenchengladbach 1-0, courtesy of Rafael van der Vaart's first goal in five months. The Dutchman thundered in from 25 metres into the top corner to snap his five-month goal drought and lift his team to sixth on 34. In other matches,Freiburg held on for a 3-2 win at Werder Bremen and Fortuna Duesseldorf beat bottom side Greuther Fuerth 1-0. — Agencies
