FA Cup semi-final draw
Chelsea v Leeds
Plenty of goals when these two met in the league in February: Chelsea throwing away a two-goal lead at home via some calamitous defending. João Pedro and Cole Palmer put them ahead; Lukas Nmecha and Noah Okafor made it 2-2. The sides last met in the FA Cup in 2024 – a dramatic 3-2 fifth-round win for Chelsea after Conor Gallagher’s late winner.
Manchester City v Southampton
Their last league meeting, in May last year, ended 0-0, with the already-relegated Saints doing enough, at least, to move past the Premier League record low mark of 11 points. The clubs last faced each other in the Cup in 2022, a 4-1 quarter-final victory for City at St Mary’s, earning City a fifth FA Cup semi-final appearance in six seasons under Pep Guardiola.
Ties will be played at Wembley, 25-26 April
The familiar London Stadium rush for the exit has never been so misjudged. A lot of West Ham fans decided they had seen enough when Dominic Calvert-Lewin put Leeds within touching distance of a first FA Cup semi-final since 1987, but how wrong they were. The non-believers reckoned without their side forcing extra time with a wild fightback from 2-0 down and were not allowed back in to see a ridiculously game go the distance.
It ended with Finlay Herrick, a 20-year-old goalkeeper whose experience of senior football extended no further than 10 games during a loan spell with National League side Boreham Wood earlier this season, coming on for his West Ham debut after Alphonse Areola went down injured. Talk about a baptism of fire. Soon West Ham’s No 4 goalkeeper was in a penalty shootout. To add to the mix, it took place at the West Ham end amid unconfirmed suggestions that those in charge of stadium security did not want the kicks taken in front of the 9,000 travelling Leeds.
