Category: Football (Soccer)

After head coach’s failure to recognise the need to upgrade an ageing squad last summer, the FA Cup is their last hope

In Manchester City having only the FA Cup to chase we see the product of the club’s failed summer recruitment, ill fortune with injury and the ravage of time to a core of Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering squad.

While Julián Álvarez’s club-record £81.5m sale to Atlético Madrid in the close season bulged transfer coffers, only Savinho was recruited for £30m, alongside the return of the now 34-year-old Ilkay Gündogan for free, as Guardiola decided no major replenishment was needed.

Aston Villa became the first team to book their place in this season’s quarter-finals by easing past a battling Cardiff

3 mins: The ball breaks to Bailey in the box, and he executes a very snazzy 360-degree spin. Doesn’t lead to much, but must have felt awesome.

2 mins: Perry Ng takes an age over a throw-in, and then chucks it at a teammate off whom it bounces into touch.

Ukraine defender on his parents enduring the war, the generosity of fans and facing Manchester City in the FA Cup

Suddenly talking about celebrating tackles with gladiatorial grace and the prospect of swapping shirts with Erling Haaland feels rather insignificant. Maksym Talovierov, known as Maxi, is detailing the sobering reality of life since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “It’s really hard because for three years every morning I wake up and I see a lot of notifications about rockets and missiles in every city, including Kyiv, where my parents are,” the Plymouth defender says. “I text them immediately to see how they’re doing. ‘Are you in the [underground] car park? Are you in the metro?’ Because when they [Russia] are bombing and it’s dangerous, that’s where they go because they are the closest things to safe zones.”

The 24-year-old has not seen his mother, Maryna, and father, Vadym, a former professional footballer, for three and a half years. “Sometimes they might not have a connection or wifi and then it’s stressful because they don’t respond and you don’t know what’s going on. On the news it might say: ‘In this area of Kyiv, five rockets.’ But you never know exactly where.

A club now safely moored after years of instability renews their slow-burn rivalry with Crystal Palace in FA Cup

“By undertaking a Freudian analysis of Millwall fandom, combined with a Lacanian interpretation of the death drive … it is possible to perceive Millwall fandom as a form of symbolic masochism.” Hmm. OK then. That sounds, on balance, like a strong disapprove. Although to be fair the walk from New Cross can be a bit bleak at this time of year.

The great days of anthropologically vital city-centre rumbles may be long gone, but there is unlikely to be a shortage of this kind of stuff any time soon.

Two founder Football League members reconvene in the fifth round on Saturday, adding to a history of Cup rivalry

If the FA Cup has a golden age, the 1950s and 1960s can lay a considerable claim. A time of schoolboys being able to list the era’s classic finals dipped in Pathé news sepia may have passed but reminiscing harks back to a time when towns rather than cities were central to English football. Specifically, towns in Lancashire, Saturday’s fifth-round lunchtime kick-off at Deepdale recalling times when Preston and Burnley competed for Cup glory.

North End and the Clarets may not be the fiercest Lancastrian rivalry – Blackpool and Blackburn are their respective bete noires – but it remains hotly contested. The pair met just a fortnight ago for a 0-0 Championship draw that boiled over, Burnley’s midfielder Hannibal Mejbri accusing the Preston forward Milutin Osmajic of racial abuse and Osmajic “strongly refuting” the claims. The matter remains with the Football Association.

• All the latest football news before the weekend’s action
• FA Cup fifth round: 10 things to look out for | Email Barry

Andy Hunter: Liverpool made a loss of £57m last season after missing out on the Champions League while wages and overhead costs increased, the club’s latest accounts have revealed …

Newcastle United v Brighton: With their team already in the Carabao Cup final, due to face Brighton in the last 16 of the FA Cup on Sunday and hopeful of securing qualification for the Champions League with a strong league finish, the fitness – or lack therof – of their striker Alexander Isak is uppermost in the thoughts of most Newcastle fans after he missed his side’s midweek defeat at Liverpool with a groin injury. Over to you, Eddie Howe …

VAR is back (to save us all), Plymouth are plotting another upset and Cardiff’s Anwar El Ghazi returns to Villa Park

The trip to Aston Villa looks tricky for Cardiff City, whose main focus is avoiding relegation to League One. Anwar El Ghazi, at least, was delighted with the draw. The Dutchman spent four years at Villa, clinching promotion at Wembley at the end of a loan season in 2018-19 before a permanent move from Lille. El Ghazi scored Villa’s first goal in a playoff final victory over Derby, with John McGinn and Tyrone Mings the only survivors from that team. Both clubs’ futures hinged on that game under the arch: Derby spiralled and faced administration before dropping into the third tier. El Ghazi can count on a hero’s welcome at Villa Park on Friday. Villa, who will visit Club Brugge for a Champions League last 16 first-leg tie on Tuesday, hope to advance to the FA Cup quarter-finals for the first time since ending as runners-up to Arsenal 10 years ago. Ben Fisher

Aston Villa v Cardiff, Friday 8pm (all times GMT)

Crystal Palace v Millwall, Saturday 12.15pm

Bournemouth v Wolves, Saturday 3pm

Manchester City v Plymouth, Saturday 5.45pm

Plymouth will be hoping for another slice of luck in the FA Cup when they face Manchester City on Saturday

By That 1980s Sports Blog

There is nothing wrong with a fluke in sport. Cliff Thorburn will forever have a place in Crucible history, having achieved the first 147 at the venue in the World Championship. But how many people will recall that the first of his 36 balls was a fluke? From good luck to “good luck, mate” in a little over 15 minutes of pure theatre.

Football is no different. There are numerous examples of fortune playing a key role in memorable matches: Jimmy Greenhoff’s winner in the 1977 FA Cup final that denied Liverpool the chance of a treble; Darren Bent’s beach ball goal; Tommy Boyd in France 98; Bruno Bellone’s penalty at Mexico 86.