The FA Cup took centre stage in mid-week with all eight fifth-round matches being played. There was a mix of big wins, surprise results and, of course, drama-filled decisions. So here’s a round-up of the biggest talking points.
The Maidstone United adventure ends
Maidstone United caused one of the upsets of the FA Cup this season when they defeated Championship high-flyers Ipswich Town to make it into the fifth round. As a reward, they were drawn against another Championship side, Coventry City.
Ellis Simms ran riot for the hosts as Mark Robins’ side ended Maidstone’s run in the FA Cup. Simms netted a hat-trick in a 5-0 win with Fabio Tavares scoring the other two goals on Tuesday night. The Championship side impressed, averaging 70% of the ball and carving out opportunities worth 3.31 Expected Goals from their 26 efforts in total.
Coventry, remarkably, scored all four of their big chances and now face Wolves in the FA Cup quarter-finals.
The Foxes cause an upset
Leicester manager Enzo Maresca made the bold decision to heavily rotate his side for the trip to Bournemouth. The Foxes had lost back-to-back matches in the Championship and their lead has now been cut down to just six points at the summit.
A return to the Premier League was obviously their focus and this meant the former Manchester City assistant manager was prepared to sacrifice a potential FA Cup quarter-final.
Yet the weakened Leicester XI eked out an extra-time win over Premier League side Bournemouth. While the hosts did rotate, it was still a fairly strong XI. They just struggled to stamp their authority on things – possession was equal, the Expected Goals haul was basically identical and both sides missed all of their big chances.
Leicester now travel to Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea in the next round of the FA Cup. It should be an entertaining game.
The Erling Haaland show
Before the FA Cup clash against Luton Town, Erling Haaland was having a bit of a rough time of it, by his standards. The Manchester City No. 9 had scored just one goal in his last four appearances. In fact, he had just three in his last nine outings for the champions.
The pressure wasn’t necessarily on him but people had been talking. The talking stopped on Tuesday night though as the Norway international found the back of the net five times during the 6-2 win over Luton. He was in ruthless form, scoring all five across a 55 minute spell.
At one point, the hosts had clawed it back to 3-2 before City decided to go up a gear.
It wasn’t even a 6-2 type of game though. Luton held their own and created chances, they just didn’t have their own Haaland and that was the difference on the night. For context, the hosts had just three fewer shots and carved out six big chances to City’s seven.
City, looking to go back-to-back in the FA Cup, play Newcastle United in the next round after the Magpies beat Blackburn Rovers on penalties.
Drama at Stamford Bridge
Chelsea needed a reaction following their Carabao Cup final loss to Liverpool on Sunday. They welcomed an in-form Leeds United team to Stamford Bridge in what had the potential to be a difficult tie.
It proved to be just that. Leeds took an early lead through Mateo Joseph before Nicolas Jackson levelled things. Mykhalio Mudruk put the hosts in front before the half-time whistle to complete the turnaround only for Joseph to find the back of the net again early in the second half.
Chelsea struggled to dominate despite having the more experienced side and playing in front of a home crowd. Possession was split 50-50 while Leeds had more of the big chances.
Just as the game appeared to be heading into extra-time, Conor Gallagher popped up with a 90th-minute winner to book Chelsea a quarter-final clash with Leicester.
Klopp’s kids do it again
Liverpool hosted Southampton on Wednesday night and their ever-growing injury list meant Jürgen Klopp was forced to piece together a very young and inexperienced starting XI. For example, Bobby Clark and James McConnell partnered Joe Gomez in an unfamiliar midfield role. Lewis Koumas, son of Jason, was given his first start in attack.
And Southampton, despite making changes themselves, took advantage of Liverpool’s inexperience early on and had multiple chances to break the deadlock. They weren’t able to convert these opportunities though and the Reds grew into the game. The hosts eventually took the lead when Koumas’ effort was deflected in and this seemed to relax everyone in red.
In the second half, Jayden Danns was given more minutes and the highly-rated youngster scored his first goals for Liverpool in what turned into a comfortable 3-0 win.
The Reds now travel to Old Trafford in the next round of the FA Cup.
(Images from IMAGO)
You can follow every match from the FA Cup live with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage and player ratings. Download the free app here.