JAKARTA – A surprise in the fifth round of the FA Cup when the English Premier League teams, Fulham and Sunderland, failed to continue their journey. They were eliminated by teams from the lower division in the match on Sunday, March 8, 2026 WIB.
Fulham who played at home at Craven Cottage Stadium was actually more favored when they hosted Southampton. The team from the Championship Division who were relegated from the Premier League last season.
Only manager Marco Silva made a gamble by rotating most of the players. There were nine players who were starters when Fulham were defeated by West Ham United 1-0 in the London Derby in the Premier League that Silva did not play.
Fulham had to pay dearly for the gamble. They had trouble dealing with the Saints, who are currently in eighth place in the Championship standings. Even Fulham was unable to break the Soton goal during the 90 minutes of the match.
In that match, Soton wore a yellow jersey to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their success as FA Cup champions in 1976. At that time, Soton, who played in the second division, made a surprise by defeating the top team Manchester United 1-0 at Wembley.
When the match entered injury time, Fulham defender Joachim Andersen made a fatal mistake. He committed a foul against Soton midfielder Finn Azaz in the penalty box.
For the offense, the referee pointed to the white spot. The penalty execution was well executed by substitute Ross Stewart. The goal created in the 90+1 minute changed the score to 1-0 for Soton.
No more goals were created and the score remained until the end of the match which brought Tonda Eckert’s team into the quarter finals. This is the first time Soto has made it to the quarter finals since 2022.
“You can see how much this victory means to the club,” said Eckert. “It’s been 50 years since we last won that trophy. It’s also important to feel how to win the game. But you have to keep running fast and keep going,” he said.
“When we arrived [at the stadium], you could see how the whole road was filled with Southampton fans. And behind the Southampton goal was filled with our fans. This really means a lot to us,” he said again.
The next surprise was none other than Port Vale. This club from the third division or League One managed to eliminate Sunderland who ranked 11th in the Premier League standings.
In that match, Port Vale who played at home won 1-0 over The Black Cats. The only goal was produced by Ben Waine who scored in the 28th minute.
The victory sent Port Vale through to the quarter-finals for the first time since 1954. Interestingly, Port Vale is at the bottom of the table in League One and is threatened with relegation to League Two next season.
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