LONDON: Carlos Tevez, arrested on Thursday night while allegedly driving while disqualified, shrugged off any pressure to score a hat-trick as Manchester City strode into the FA Cup semi-finals with a 5-0 win over Barnsley.

The Argentinian had been taken to Macclesfield police station after being stopped in his white Porsche and was later released on bail. Previously Tevez had been banned from driving for six months and ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £1,540 for speeding offences.

Back out on the pitch on Saturday evening he scored after 11 minutes and again on the halfhour with Aleksandr Kolarov scoring another inbetween as City led 3-0 at the interval. Tevez completed his treble five minutes into the second half with David Silva rounding off the scoring.

Earlier Wigan Athletic reached the semi-finals for the first time after three goals in a devastating four-minute spell saw off hosts Everton 3-0 at Goodison Park.

Maynor Figueroa, Callum McManaman and Jordi Gomez scored within just 202 seconds of each other in the first half to demolish last year’s semi-finalists.

While Roberto Martinez plots Wigan’s survival – and now an FA Cup semi-final – speculation will build further around Everton manager David Moyes who has been in charge for 11 years without a trophy and a contract expiring at the season’s end.

In the Premier League Aston Villa and Queens Park Rangers picked up important victories in the fight aganst relegation.

Paul Lambert’s Aston Villa had looked to be heading deeper into the relegation mire when Nathan Baker put an attempted clearance into his own net against Reading. But Christian Benteke and Gabriel Agbonlahor hit back as the visitors dominated the latter stages of the first half to go 2-1 up.

Noel Hunt thought he had equalised for the Royals after the break but his effort was ruled out for offside as Villa climbed out of the bottom three.

Bottom club QPR also came from behind to secure a 3-1 win over Sunderland.

Steven Fletcher’s tap-in had put the Black Cats a goal to the good at Loftus Road, but Loic Remy levelled with an excellent low finish before Andros Townsend and Jermaine Jenas sealed the win.

Norwich should also have picked up a valuable win but Grant Holt’s failure to convert a late penalty against Southampton meant it finished goalless at Carrow Road.

In the day’s other game West Bromwich Albion climbed to seventh in the table by beating Swansea 2-1 at The Hawthorns. Luke Moore had put the Swans ahead against his former club, but Romelu Lukaku and a Jonathan de Guzman own goal gave the Baggies the three points.

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