This past week saw the FA Cup 5th round fixtures take place, this round featured some interesting ties, including Luton hosting Manchester City in an all-Premier League tie, Chelsea taking on Championship promotion hopefuls Leeds United and Bournemouth also doing the same! Today we’re going to have a look at some of these teams that qualified for the Quarter Finals and see how they performed, starting with Luton Vs Manchester City.
FA Cup 5th Round highlights
Luton Vs Manchester City
Of all the Premier League teams remaining in the FA Cup 5th round, Luton drew the short straw. While it’s fair to say Manchester City haven’t been at their flawless best and Haaland hasn’t been the free-scoring robot he has become known to be, that would quickly change at Kenilworth Road on Tuesday.
Haaland and De Bruyne were on FIRE, Haaland scored the first 5 of the 6 goals for Manchester City, the first 4 of which were all assisted by KDB and 3 of which were in the first half. At 3-0, Luton managed to pull two back to give them hope but it just provoked the beast. The final 2 goals from Haaland and one from Kovacic put the tie to bed.
Liverpool Vs Southampton
An interesting tie this one, both teams made lots of changes. Liverpool fresh off their Extra Time win in the Carabao Cup final over Chelsea still plagued by injuries and Southampton who, while loving their FA Cup run, are absolutely focusing their energy on promotion back into the Premier League. Southampton took charge of the tie early on with the majority of the chances, but it was 18-year-old Lewis Koumas who opened the scoring just before halftime, scuppering the efforts of the Saints.
Liverpool started the second half in a much more positive manner, however, Southampton were breaking with lightning pace on the counter, their hearts broken when yet another 18-year-old scored the next goal, Jayden Danns. Showing why Klopp has faith in him with a brace! This was the first time in Liverpool history that two 18-year-olds have scored in the same game, both bagging their first goals for the club.
Blackburn Rovers Vs Newcastle
With Blackburn Rovers fighting for their lives in the Championship, this was supposed to be an easy FA Cup trip for Newcastle. Though the magpies are struggling with injuries of their own, a nervy game that saw a rather dull first half, burst into life in the 70th minute as Anthony Gordon gave Newcastle the lead before Sammie Szmodics fired in an equaliser 8 minutes later, extra time saw both teams miss big chances before Newcastle finally get the win on penalties 4-3.
Coventry Vs Maidstone United
A lot of eyes were on this FA Cup game as Coventry, placed 9th in the Championship fighting for a place in the playoffs for promotion to the Premier League took on Maidstone United who are currently in 9th place in the National League South. A huge gap in league position, 94 places across 4 leagues to be exact. Not only that but Maidstone have already claimed one Championship scalp, that scalp was Ipswich who are currently 3rd in the Championship and again, fighting tooth and nail for automatic promotion.
Unfortunately, much like for many people, the FA Cup fairytale came to an abrupt end in Coventry as the home team did not mess around. The National League outfit saw themselves 3-0 down in the first half, they only had 30% of the possession, they made less than half the passes (337-794) with a poor 69% (nice) pass completion rate, they only managed 3 shots to 26 of Coventry, 15 of which were on target. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be for Maidstone, but for Coventry they march on and they have a very winnable game in the Quarter Final.
The rest of the games
The other games in the FA Cup 5th round saw Wolves beat Brighton in a pretty nervy 1-0 win at Molineux with the only goal coming in the 2nd minute from Mario Lemina. Chelsea almost bottled their FA Cup run as Leeds found themselves in the lead in 8 minutes at Stamford Bridge, but goals from Nicolas Jackson, Mykhailo Mudryk and a 90th-minute winner from Conor Gallagher saw Chelsea carry on to the Quarters with a 3-2 home win.
Nottingham Forest hosted old rivals Manchester United and for what it’s worth, put up a bloody good effort, against what was a full-strength Manchester United team, they arguably had the better chances of the game but an 89th-minute winner from Casemiro saw United set up a spicy tie in the Quarter Final.
The final game of the 5th round was an entertaining 1-0 at the Vitality Stadium, I know, an entertaining 1-0? The game featured 49 shots, 10 of which were on target, even possession (48-52), even passes (529-568), even pass accuracy (77-78), and even fouls (15-16) with plenty of cards, 9 in total. But in the end, Leicester City progressed to the Quarters after a banger in extra time from Abdul Fatawu.
The FA Cup quarter-final draw
Finally, before we round this one off, we also got the draw for the Quarter Finals! Here are the fixtures;
Saturday 16th March
- Wolves Vs Coventry (12:15 Kick Off)
- Manchester City Vs Newcastle (5:30 Kick Off)
Sunday 17th March
- Chelsea Vs Leicester City (12:45 Kick Off)
- Manchester United Vs Liverpool (3:30 Kick Off)
Two all Premier League ties including a huge game at Old Trafford between old rivals Man United and Liverpool, both teams with drastically different performances that led to their progression into the Quarter Finals and the same can be said for the other all-Premier League tie at the Etihad.
Wolves are realistically the only team with a favourable draw because even Chelsea didn’t look their best against Leeds, Leicester could prove too much for them right now! We don’t have long to wait however before these games will be upon us!
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