Category: FA Cup

Crystal Palace defender on dreaming of FA Cup glory, Oliver Glasner and the importance of faith to the team

Maxence Lacroix is treating Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley as just another game but the same can’t be said of his mother. “She’s more stressed than me right now,” the Crystal Palace defender says. “But I think it’s really good for a mother or father to see their son running his dream and playing this type of game because she knew it was difficult before and now she sees her son growing, having a family and doing what he wants. So I think she’s proud, a little bit stressed but it’s all right.”

Growing up in Ajat, a village in the Dordogne, Lacroix knew he was never going to follow in his mother Corrine’s footsteps by becoming a doctor. Having moved to Germany from the French side Sochaux as a 20-year-old after coming through the prestigious Clairefontaine academy, he reunited with Oliver Glasner – his former manager at Wolfsburg – in south London last summer. The elegant defender is the heartbeat of the Palace side that will face Aston Villa for a place in the final and has been tipped to win his first senior cap sooner rather than later after representing France at every youth level.

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• Forward shrugs off being dropped for game at City
• Villa chasing first major honour since 1996 League Cup

Ollie Watkins has urged Aston Villa to bounce back from Tuesday’s defeat at Manchester City by knocking out their “bogey team” Crystal Palace and progressing to the FA Cup final.

Villa lost 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium thanks to Matheus Nunes’s 94th-minute winner, leaving them seventh, two points behind Newcastle in the fifth and final place that secures Champions League qualification.

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Manchester City fought back from a goal down to book a Wembley semi-final against Nottingham Forest

1 min City kick off and pass back to Ederson. He goes long – and straight out.

The sun is out, the pitch a green chessboard, the crowd a blast of good-natured noise.

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Marcus Rashford scored his first goals for 14 games as Villa eased to victory, setting up a semi-final meeting with Crystal Palace

Email! “Playing Asensio seems a bit harsh to me,” says Kieran McKintosh. “And considering PSG aren’t that far away, a bit questionable. My second-largest hope for today is a Rashford goal. It really has been a long time coming. My largest hope, though, has gotta be hoping someone, anyone, will sell me that Lego set I’ve wanted for years at a decent price. No, eBay, 604 pieces does NOT merit £140. Anyway, up the Villa and all that. I do have a soft spot for them after last season.”

This shark just trod on one of those 604 pieces.

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Three games from their first major trophy and in with a shout for Europe but for a club their size, these moments are fleeting

The first time Bournemouth played in an FA Cup quarter‑final was 1957 when they faced Manchester United. They were still called Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic in those days and played in the Third Division (South). They had put out Wolves and Tottenham in the previous two rounds, the excitement enticing a record crowd of 28,799 to Dean Court to see them play Matt Busby’s side.

The United centre-half Mark Jones was carried off early on and, nine years before the introduction of substitutes, Bournemouth took the lead against the 10 men, Brian Bedford nudging in after Ray Wood had flapped at a corner. Two Johnny Berry goals, the second a penalty, in the space of five second‑half minutes, though, saw United through. They went on to lose to Aston Villa in the final, when Peter McParland fractured Wood’s cheekbone after six minutes, forcing the centre-half Jackie Blanchflower to take over in goal.

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Matz Sels was heroic in the shootout to send Forest into the last four of the FA Cup for the first time since 1991

Forest get the ball rolling. A huge roar of Albion. The away end giving it plenty as well.

The teams are out! A cracking atmosphere in Sussex by the Sea. The Seagulls in their blue and white stripes, the Tricky Trees in first-choice red. We’ll be off in a minute or two.

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• Eze scores and assists in 3-0 FA Cup win at Fulham
• ‘We lost every duel until Eze’s amazing goal’

Oliver Glasner praised the impact of Eberechi Eze after the Crystal Palace forward transformed a tie Fulham had initially dominated with two moments of skill to tilt it in his side’s favour. Eze opened the scoring in the 34th minute and created a second goal four minutes later to leave Fulham deflated and all but seal Palace’s place in the FA Cup semi-finals.

“The first 15, 20 minutes we had no structure in our game,” Glasner said. “We lost almost every single ball, we lost almost every single duel and we really struggled. We lost the ball too easily, too quickly. We were too long on the ball.

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Some players’ futures are in doubt but beating Bournemouth could help those they leave behind

Pep Guardiola is a basketball aficionado and has often been seen courtside in America trying to learn from one of the world’s most intense sports. The Manchester City manager holds Michael Jordan in high esteem and it feels as if the next two months may be the club’s version of the basketball legend’s Last Dance documentary for some of their senior players. The FA Cup is the NBA championship for those wondering where they may start next season.

City face a second trip of the season to Bournemouth, where their 32-match unbeaten run ended in November, hoping to reach a semi-final at Wembley for the seventh successive year. Guardiola and his side have barely recovered since losing Rodri, City’s Jordan according to his coach, and a second defeat by Andoni Iraola’s men on Sunday would remove any chance of a trophy for the Spaniard and his ageing charges this season. Jordan was asked for one great final year with the Chicago Bulls. Guardiola, who regards the Club World Cup as the start of the 2025-26 campaign, needs two months from his creaking squad.

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Championship club face elite opposition in Aston Villa but the Lancashire city is gripped by Cup fever

‘I’ve had to tell my mum not to bother with Mother’s Day,” quips Preston fan Tom Bates. The 29-year-old has forgone the purchase of flowers, cards and the prospect of a Sunday roast to buy a ticket at Deepdale for North End’s first FA Cup quarter-final in 59 years.

The past six decades have brought Preston six relegations and promotions, a third and fourth division title and a solitary Lancashire Senior Cup. Since they triumphed in the League One playoff final in 2015 their seasons have been humdrum: they have finished between seventh and 14th each season and this is the first time they have got beyond the fourth round in either cup. It has given supporters such as Bates, who saw his first match when he was two, little to celebrate. The visit of the Champions League side Aston Villa to Lancashire will be one of the biggest days in the club’s recent history, played out in front of a vociferous crowd of 23,400. A tie at Wembley awaits the winners.

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Borrowing from the All Blacks, manager says the power of psychology has helped his side recover from 7-0 drubbing

Were Fabian Hürzeler in any doubt about the importance of the FA Cup to Brighton fans, he received a gentle reminder when back in his home town of Munich. Hürzeler’s short international break, among family and friends, received a polite but pointed interruption. “Walking through the city, one of the Brighton supporters called my name and said he’s really looking forward to the game,” said the club’s head coach. “He said that we have to give everything in this game, and of course you feel it, but for me it’s important that we don’t make it artificial excitement.”

Hürzeler, born a decade after Albion lost the 1983 final to Manchester United in a replay, can be excused for not knowing the lore of Steve Foster’s headband, Tony Grealish’s hirsute captaincy and the striker Gordon Smith’s “must score” miss. There are always the owner, Tony Bloom, and the club’s time-served staffers to run through the details. In any case, Brighton relived that Wembley day two seasons ago, another hard-luck loss to United in the semi-finals, this time on penalties.

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• Striker lacerated ear in incident against Millwall
• Mateta back for FA Cup quarter-final at Fulham

Jean-Philippe Mateta will make his first Crystal Palace appearance on Saturday since being hospitalised with a lacerated ear, with Oliver Glasner confident the striker has not been psychologically affected by the incident.

Mateta was kicked in the head by Millwall’s goalkeeper Liam Roberts in the FA Cup fifth round four weeks ago and required 25 stitches. Roberts, who was sent off, received a six-match ban.

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Nottingham Forest visit Brighton while Preston can see Wembley within reach as they host Aston Villa

FA Cup (statistics from all competitions)

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• Striker sustained hip injury for New Zealand
• Nuno Espírito Santo: ‘He has been to a specialist’

Chris Wood will miss Nottingham Forest’s FA Cup quarter-final against Brighton after sustaining an injury with New Zealand, Nuno Espírito Santo has said.

Wood has been in excellent form with 18 goals in the Premier League, where Forest sit third as they close in on Champions League qualification. He scored a hat-trick when Forest thrashed Brighton 7-0 in the league last month.

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