The FA Cup semi-final draw on Sunday night set up two compelling ties at Wembley, with Manchester City taking on Southampton and Chelsea meeting Leeds United on April 25 and 26.
The FA Cup semi-final draw delivered exactly the kind of matchups the competition thrives on. Manchester City will face Southampton in one tie, while Chelsea take on Leeds United in the other, with both matches to be played at Wembley on April 25 and 26.
Southampton’s dream run continues
Southampton’s reward for one of the upsets of the season is a semi-final against Manchester City. Their 2-1 victory over Arsenal on Saturday sent the Premier League leaders crashing out, and the Saints now find themselves two wins from lifting the trophy despite spending much of the campaign in a relegation fight. City will be heavy favourites after demolishing Liverpool 4-0 in their own quarter-final, with Erling Haaland scoring a hat-trick, but Southampton have already shown they can rise to the biggest occasions this season.
The last time Southampton reached an FA Cup final was in 2003, when they lost 1-0 to Arsenal (at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff). Their only FA Cup triumph came back in 1976 against Manchester United. Beating City would give their fans something to cherish regardless of what happens in the league.
Chelsea and Leeds meet at Wembley
Chelsea’s route to the final looks the more favourable on paper. Cole Palmer captained the side to a 7-0 thrashing of Port Vale in the quarter-finals, and they will fancy their chances against a Leeds side who needed penalties to get past West Ham on Sunday. But Leeds have waited 39 years for an FA Cup semi-final and will not go quietly. Their dramatic shootout victory at the London Stadium, with Pascal Struijk converting the decisive penalty after a tense 120 minutes, showed the sort of resilience that can trouble anyone over 90 minutes at Wembley.
Leeds have not appeared in an FA Cup final since 1973, when they lost to Sunderland. Chelsea, by contrast, won the competition in 2018 and have been regulars at this stage for the best part of two decades. The gulf in recent cup pedigree is wide, but this season’s FA Cup has not followed the script.
A semi-final weekend to savour
The draw has split the two perceived favourites, meaning a City-Chelsea final remains possible. But this competition has already punished anyone who assumed the obvious outcome. Arsenal and Liverpool are both gone, knocked out by a team fighting relegation and a Haaland-inspired City side respectively.
For Southampton and Leeds, the semi-finals represent something rare. Both clubs carry the weight of decades without a major Wembley occasion, and both earned their place the hard way. City and Chelsea will expect to progress, but expectation has not counted for much in this year’s FA Cup.
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