Sheffield United‘s reward for their dramatic win over Blackburn Rovers is an FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City.
The Blades progressed to the Wembley semis courtesy of City loanee Tommy Doyle’s late winner and are now the only non-Premier League side remaining.
Doyle will be hoping to emulate his two grandfathers, Mike Doyle and Glyn Pardoe, who both won the cup with City in 1969 but unfortunately for the 21-year-old he is likely to be ineligible to face his parent club, along with fellow City loanee James McAtee.
It was the one draw that Sheffield United’s manager Paul Heckingbottom wished to avoid.
“My wish is we don’t draw City, we don’t complicate things with the loans, that is just what I wish, but we will wait and see,” Heckingbottom said.
“It would have to be discussed, it just complicates things, if we avoid them they are our players and if we drew them, they are their players.”
City looked in imperious form as they booked their place in the last four, with Erling Haaland’s sixth hat-trick of the season helping them on their way to a 6-0 rout of Vincent Kompany’s Burnley.
Brighton will take on Manchester United or Fulham, who play in Sunday’s late game, in the other semi after they thrashed League Two side Grimsby Town 5-0 in the quarter-finals.
FA Cup semi-final draw in full
- Brighton vs Man Utd or Fulham
- Sheff Utd vs Man City
When are the FA Cup semi-finals?
The FA Cup semi-finals will take place at Wembley across the weekend of Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 April.
The final will be played at Wembley on Saturday 3 June.
Pep believes City are peaking at the right time
Pep Guardiola feels his City side are hitting their stride as they approach the business end of the season.
The champions have fallen below their usual high levels of consistency this term but have found form over the past month and are firmly in contention in three competitions heading into the international break.
The thrashing of runaway Championship leaders Burnley came four days after a 7-0 demolition of RB Leipzig that eased them into the last eight of the Champions League, while they remain the closest challengers to Arsenal in the Premier League.
City have won their last six matches in all competitions and are unbeaten in 10 stretching back to the first week of February.
“We are in a good moment,” Guardiola said. “Against Newcastle we were good to handle an incredible opponent, then after, Leipzig and Crystal Palace, always we suffer.
“But we scored a lot of goals and conceded few chances and were stable with everyone making contributions.
“We defended well, we are a threat in the set-pieces like never before. In the last six or seven years I never had the feeling we could score in every corner or free-kick.
“Now we stop and go to the national teams and then after we have the Reds [Liverpool]. We have time to think about it, but now we know Arsenal are going to drop few points so we will have to win almost all the games.
“The rivals for the Champions League, a historical team, it is an honour to play against Bayern [Munich] and the [FA Cup] semi-final at Wembley again is an incredible honour.
“At this stage, to still be alive in three competitions is so nice, so good.”
Additional reporting by Press Association
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