EMIRATES FA CUP SEMI FINALS WEEKEND _ SATURDAY 17th _ SUNDAY 18th APRIL 2021

Beginning to reach the final stages of this season and as we've reached the middle of April it's time for the semi final stages of the FA Cup sponsored by Emirates. These matches will be played at Wembley and one of them is being used as a test event for the return of fans, a limited crowd of 4000 will be allowed for the match between Leicester City and Southampton on Sunday 18th April.

These footballing test events, which also includes the EFL Cup Final at Wembley, will be part of the government’s science-led Events Research Programme (ERP) working closely with local authorities and organisers to undertake studies to get fans and audiences back in safely as restrictions are gradually eased.

First of these will be the Emirates FA Cup semi-final between Leicester City and Southampton on Sunday 18 April, which will host an audience of 4000 people, before the League Cup Final on 25 April which will step up to have 8000 spectators. The plan is then to build up to hosting a 21,000 crowd for the Emirates FA Cup Final on Saturday 15 May.

Saturday 17 April 2021
Chelsea 1 - 0 Manchester City (5.30pm BST) – BBC One
[Ziyech 55']

BBC will televise the first of the two semi finals this weekend as Chelsea, last season's beaten finalists, will take on Manchester City who are still fighting on four fronts this season. The Blues are fighting for two cup competitions under Thomas Tuchel and are also firmly in the top four race with the season beginning to reach it's climax. Chelsea made it through to the semi final stage of the FA Cup having beaten Sheffield United 2-0 in the quarter finals six days ago at Stamford Bridge, an own goal from Oliver Norwood and Hakim Ziyech's injury time strike enough to give Tuchel's side the victory in a game where they were not at their best. 

Pep Guardiola's City brushed aside Chelsea 3-1 back in January's league fixture, and will probably be favourites to reach another final this season. Despite last weekend's defeat to Leeds United they still on course to regain their Premier League title, already in the League Cup final (vs Tottenham) next weekend and faced Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday night in the Champions League winning 2-1 on the night [4-2 on aggregate] keeping them in the hunt for four trophies. They reached this semi final tie by overcoming Everton 2-0 with late goals from Ilkay Gündogan and Kevin De Bruyne.

I hope for a high scoring entertaining game and will go for the over 3.5 goals here to mirror the 3-1 game in the league. 

Sunday 18 April 2021
Leicester City 1 - 0 Southampton (6.30pm BST) – BT Sport 1 

Ralph Hasenhuttl's side booked their place at Wembley with a comfortable 3-0 win over south coast neighbours Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium. Nathan Redmond and Moussa Djenepo were on target in the Dorset sunshine while Leicester City caused a 3-1 'shock' against Ole Gunnar Solskaer's United to join them and their manager Brendan Rodgers will be aiming to take his foxes into this season's cup final as they are the only one of the last four to have not yet lifted the famous trophy.

With a few thousand lucky fans able to watch this tie will be strange to see Wembley so sparsely populated. Leicester to win this one for us, while also looking at goals from Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho probably back them for the first scorer. 

£900,000 and £450,000 will be distributed from the Emirates FA Cup’s prize fund to winning and losing clubs respectively in the semi-finals.

Good luck to all four teams this weekend, and it's Leicester who will meet Chelsea in this season's FA Cup Final next month.