Wycombe upsets Charlton

London:

Wycombe upset Charlton 1-0 on Tuesday to earn a semifinal place in the English League Cup, while the Liverpool-Arsenal match was called off because of fog. Jermaine Easter scored in the 35th minute at The Valley to ensure the League Two side eliminated Charlton, which is struggling in the Premier League. Charlton's team and its head coach Les Reed, who replaced the fired Iain Dowie on Nov. 14, were jeered as they left the field. Charlton is 19th in the Premier League. "Obviously they are struggling in the Premiership, but I thought it was going to be tougher than it was," Easter said. "As the game went on and we had gone in front, I did not think we were going to lose. "We could have gone into halftime two or three-nil up - it was disappointing in that respect. We are in the semifinal now, and that is massive." Wycombe manager Paul Lambert, a former Scotland international who won the European Champions League in 1997 with Borussia Dortmund, praised the "extraordinary effort" of his side. Wycombe also beat Premier League side Fulham in the previous round. "I do not get this thing that 'It is only Charlton and they are struggling.' They are still a top-class side," Lambert said. "We have punched above our weight, no doubt about it. Nobody expected us to get this far and the players deserve all the credit." Reed and the players remained in the locker room for more than hour after the final whistle and there was no club representative present at the post-match news conference. Liverpool's match was postponed an hour before kickoff after two field inspections. Referee Martin Atkinson decided that visibility was so poor that the game could not be played. "It is a massive game, and from an official's point of view we want to be officiating," Atkinson said. "From the situation we can't do that. For us to start the game and then have an assistant not being able to see an offside decision would bring the game into a farce." The match will be rescheduled. Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez said the match could have gone ahead. "I was surprised because this morning we were training in worse conditions," he said. "You cannot change the decision. You must respect it, but we don't agree." Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger also wanted the match to be played. "We had a good mixture of experienced and young players and I think it would have been very interesting," he said. Wenger said Arsenal would have "happily" played the match on Wednesday but Merseyside police said clubs had to give 10 days notice to reschedule a game. Two more quarterfinal matches are slated for Wednesday - Newcastle hosts Chelsea, and Tottenham hosts Southend.