The FA Cup semifinals are established and this season promises exhibition events that are a bit different from the usual ones. It is true that the frequent Manchester City winners are still in the mixture, but next to them there are three of the middle class of the Premier League, the type of sides for whom a trip through Wembley Way tends to mean the tension of a playoff final instead of dreams of what could happen at the traditional final point of the English season.
Crystal Palace was the first to win his place in the hat for the semifinal raffle, crushing Fulham along the way and establishing the tone for a weekend where the visiting fans who celebrated the glory of the Cup were. Nottingham Forest went to a shooting to find a path beyond Brighton and Hove Albion.
There is no such drama for Aston Villa on Sunday, since they passed through the last remaining team of the championship in the competition, Preston North End beat 3-0 in Deepdale. The best of the action came to the end, the Manchester City season apparently on the edge at half a while after Evanilson delivered Bournemouth. The Pep Guardiola side obtained a measure of revenge for a defeat at the beginning of the season that seemed to throw them into turbulence, an inspired exhibition of the Nico O’Reilly substitute swinging the contest. First, he shot a precise cross for Erling Haaland to score before providing the winner to Omar Marmoush.
Semifinal draw
- Crystal Palacio vs. Aston Villa
- Nottingham Forest vs. Manchester City
The ties will be played on the weekend of April 26 and 27.
Crystal Palace
Better end: Runner-up (1990, 2016) -In the positive side of Palace, Manchester United is not in the last four with them. The Red Devils have ruined the two pilgrimages of the Eagles from southern London to the north. Depending on its definition of the Cup of Complete Members, a competition for English clubs when they were expelled from Europe, Palace has not yet added an important cup to their trophies cabinet
How they got here: On Saturday morning was the Eberechi Eze Show, the England’s international in his re Recorist Best in a 3-0 victory in Fulham. Eze scored the first and put another for Ismaila Sar four minutes later, a moving fight after being under the Cosh in the first exchanges in Craven Cottage. Eddie Nketiah added a third with a remaining quarter to play, a streak of five 2-0 victories on the road broken per style.
Fulham was the first opponent of the Premier League that he has overcome in the FA Cup this season after comfortable victories against Stockport, Doncaster and Millwall.
Possibilities of winning it: There may be no more team in the field than the Palace, winners of its last five in all competitions and with a record of 10 wins, a draw and two losses in 2025. As recently as last month, they crushed Villa in Selhurst Park, Sensational Eze in a match where the Oliver Glasner team put 4.31 aware goals.
Aston Villa
Better end: Winners (1887, 1895, 1897, 1905, 1913, 1920, 1957) – One of the great English football clubs, but few in Wembley in the coming months will have seen Villa lift the FA Cup. In fact, there have been few visits at the end for a club size and history. Since their last victory, they have been in the final only twice, losing to Chelsea in 2000 and Arsenal 15 years later.
How they got here: In an exhausting season, Villa has sailed to the semifinals in an impressive way. West Ham and Tottenham were defeated 2-1 in Villa Park, Morgan Rogers in both ties. Cardiff was then bewitched in the 16 round, Marco Asensio in double.
It was another January borrower who lit the sixth round, Marcus Rashford wrote his first goal at Manchester United and then another from the place. Jacob Ramsey obtained the third in the greatest regulation of the victories.
Possibilities of winning it: Those previous names, all competing for the places in the first line of Unai Emery with some others, speak with the impressive depth available for Villa. This is a squad that, in the right places, really has the depth of competing on multiple fronts, a blessing because they have needed it in a champion league campaign that has taken them to the quarterfinals. On their trip to Wembley, they will have crossed both legs of that and a battle for a position among the top five with Newcastle. Will the rest of a week be sufficient for a squad that occasionally looks like a leg, regardless of rotation?
3. Nottingham forest
Better end: Winners (1898, 1959) – Like Villa, this is not a competition in which there is a lot of recent glory for Forest. In fact, for many, the relationship of this club with the competition is quite defined by its state as the one that escaped for Brian Clough, defeated by Tottenham in the 1991 final. Whatever the result in the semifinal, this season will be the most remote forest in the competition since then.
How they got here: It has been a high drama streak for the men of Nuno Espirito Santo, although one that began quite orthodox with a 2-0 victory over Luton. Since then, each game has gone all the way, the city of Exeter of the League one transported to its opposition of the Premier League the road to the penalties, where Matz Sels was the hero. The same again in the next two rounds like Ipswich and then Brighton fell 12 yards.
Possibilities of winning it: Discarding Nottingham Forest is a risky movement after they bother so many in third place in the Premier League. His most cautious, defensive and contrary style is quite suitable for cup football. In this season, they have been extremely parsimonious, keeping each opponent exeter bar less than 0.9 xg in two hours of football.
Likewise, this team has had the same type of underlying metrics during their Cup race they have had in the Premier League this season: an XG difference very slightly higher than the average that barely shouts the qualifier of the Champions League or the winner of the FA Cup. They can’t continue altering probabilities forever, right?
4. Manchester City
Better end: Winners (1904. 1934, 1956, 1969, 2011, 2019, 2023) – The victory for the Pep Guardiola side in May would attract Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham level as the third most successful side in the history of the FA Cup, one of the clearest indications of the great six. City has reached the semifinals in each of the last seven years, reaching three finals, winning one and losing to Manchester United last year.
How they got here: It had been relatively soft sailing through a favorable draw for the winners of 2023, Salford City broke 8-0 in the third round before a dramatic tie in the fourth round in Leyton Orient. In the teeth of their struggles, they slid into a deficit of the first half just so that Kevin de Bruyne changes the tie. Plymouth Argyle was defeated before an impressive return victory in Dean Court.
Possibilities of winning it: The strong favorites, who play at their maximum level, there is no one in the field that can overcome City. On the other hand, throughout this season, they have seen less than their peak, a side that can be undone by the counterattack approach that the forest, the palace and the villas are perfectly prepared to deploy given the occasion.
Even so, they seem the most likely side to cut a jubilant road to Wembley’s Royal Box later in spring. If someone else defeated them to the title, it could be a quite special Cup FA story.
