The Round of 16 of the FA Cup will be over next week when Nottingham Forest faces Huddersfield. On Thursday, Everton defeated Boreham Wood 2-0. Salomon Rondon scored both goals in Thursday’s 5th round tie as the minnows failed to stun the Toffees.
The quarter-final draw has also been taken place, and all the remaining teams have found out who their opponent is in the last 8.
Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City have avoided each other in the FA Cup quarter-final draw. These are the teams that will face each other in the quarter-finals:
- Crystal Palace vs Everton
- Nottingham Forest or Huddersfield vs Liverpool
- Middlesbrough vs Chelsea
- Southampton vs Manchester City
The giant killer Middlesbrough, who have already knocked out Tottenham and Manchester United in successive rounds, face a challenging task against Chelsea.
That’s because the Blues have won the eight meetings between the two sides. The last time Boro beat Chelsea was in 2006, and the match is also a repeat of the iconic 1997 final, which saw the Londoners emerge victoriously.
Chelsea are looking to win their ninth FA Cup title, Liverpool will be targeting their eight and Manchester City looks to add the seventh. After beating Chelsea in last year’s final, Leicester City are the current FA Cup champions.
All FA Cup quarter-final matches will have 30 minutes of extra time if it is a draw after 90 minutes. There will then be penalties if neither side finds a breakthrough in extra time.
All four games will be played later this month. They will take place from the weekend of Friday 18 March to Monday 21 March. After that, it will be a trip to Wembley for the four sides in the semis.
Thomas Tuchel’s side are in the quarter-finals for the fifth time in six years, having squeezed past Plymouth and Luton in the past two rounds. Chelsea survived a major FA Cup scare to reach the quarter-finals with a 3-2 win at Luton just hours after Roman Abramovich put the club up for sale on Wednesday. The Russian billionaire has decided to sell Chelsea amid fears the British government could sanction him amid his country’s invasion of Ukraine.
On Wednesday, a 2-1 win over Norwich delivered the Reds to the last-eight, a stage which Jurgen Klopp has never reached in his time at Anfield. Japanese forward Minamino put Liverpool ahead in the 27th minute with a clinical finish from Divock Origi’s pass.
He netted again in the 38th minute, lashing home off the inside of the post before Lukas Rupp got one back for Norwich in the 76th minute. Having lifted the League Cup last weekend, Liverpool are firmly in contention for the Premier League and Champions League, with no English side ever winning all four prizes in one season.