Manchester City and Chelsea coasted past their respective opponents to progress in the F.A. Cup.
City's only realistic chance of earning some silverware remained alive after a Sergio Aguero brace helped the English Premier League champions to a comfortable 4-0 win over Championship side Leeds United.
The other two big guns in the City lineups -- Yaya Toure and Carlos Tevez - scored the other two as City advanced to the quarterfinals, where they will face Barnsley.
City manager Roberto Mancini hoped the impressive win would be the catalyst to reviving the rest of the team's season, with the club currently 12 points behind Manchester United in the Premier League race, with just 12 games remaining.
"In Italy we say a game like this is a brodino -- a starter," Mancini said. "I hope it can happen that we start to win in the Premier League again.
"We lost seven points in (our last) three games and this can happen for any team. But now they (United) play a lot of games, at this moment they deserve to stay there because they have been better than us and scored more goals than us."
Chelsea earned a fifth round tie with Middlesbrough, after seeing off the challenge of fellow West London side Brentford 4-0 in the fourth round replay at Stamford Bridge.
Juan Mata started the scoring early in the second half, after a frustrating first, before Oscar, Frank Lampard and John Terry eased the team's passage. Lampard is now only three goals short of tying Bobby Tambling's all-time club record of 202 goals.
"I have a contract until the end of the season, I am really pleased to be here, I am really pleased to work with this group of players because they are working very hard and we try to win every game and see what happens," Chelsea interim manager Rafa Benitez said.
"Sometimes you don't believe me but the difference is when you have players available you can manage in a different way. Demba Ba, David Luiz could not play in the Europa League, they could play this game and you can manage.
"I don't know if I see him (Abramovich) or not, but it doesn't matter at the end of the day. The main thing is the team doing well, winning games, clean sheet, four goals, everything is fine. It is a sunny day too."
Chelsea, if they beat Middlesbrough, face a possible quarterfinal clash with Manchester United, who take on Reading Monday in the fifth round.
At the John Smith Stadium, Arouna Kone was the star as Wigan eased past Huddersfield 4-1. Callum McManaman opened the scoring for Wigan, before Kone fired home his first of the day.
Lee Novak got one back for the home side, but James McArthur made it 3-1 soon after, with Kone striking a late fourth to complete his brace.