It is FA Cup Semi-Final weekend in England and we take look at both games from a betting angle.
Let’s start with a look at the Outright Betting where Manchester City are trading as 8/10 favourites to lift the Cup, Leicester are 33/10, you can get 4/1 Chelsea and Southampton are the rank outsiders at 10/1.
Click here for FA Cup Outright Betting
CHELSEA v MANCHESTER CITY
These are two of the form sides in Europe, let alone England and they both progressed to the Champions League semi-finals in midweek.
Looking Chelsea’s FA Cup run, they have had comfortable home wins over Morecambe and Luton before edging Barnsley 1-0 on the road. In their quarter-final they beat Sheffield United 2-0 at home and they have only conceded 1 goal in 4 matches to date.
They did lose their midweek clash to Porto 1-0 at home, but still progressed to the semi-finals based on their 2-0 away win.
Manchester City beat Everton on the road in their quarter-final and they have also had 2 goal winning margins away and Swansea and Cheltenham and in their Round 3 fixture they hammered Birmingham 3-0 at home.
City beat Dortmund 2-1 away in midweek to secure a 4-2 aggregate path to the semi-finals and last weekend they were stunned in the league when Leeds beat them 2-1 at home.
Looking at recent head-to-head form between the sides, Manchester City beat Chelsea 3-1 away in their last encounter in the League back in January and last season the home team found 2-1 on each occasion.
This match, of course, is being played at Wembley
BETTING – Click here to bet
Chelsea 15/4
Draw 5/2
Manchester City 8/10
Suggested Bet: Over 2.5 goals at 19/20
There have been at least 4 goals in the last 3 matches between the sides and I am expecting a fairly open affair. City are worthy favourites, but for me a bit short at 8/10 and if anything I think the value in the 90 minute or to progress markets lies with Chelsea.
LEICESTER v SOUTHAMPTON
This match also takes place at Wembley, but on Sunday.
Leicester saw off Manchester United 3-1 at home in the quarter-finals and prior to that beat Brighton at home having opened their FA Cup campaign with away wins over Stoke and Brentford.
Their League form has taken a dip of late and they lost 3-2 away to West Ham last time out and 2-0 at home to City before that.
Southampton beat Bournemouth 3-0 on the road in their quarter-final and prior to that had seen off Wolves on the road 2-0 and beaten Arsenal and Shrewsbury at home, both without conceding a goal, meaning they are yet to concede a goal in the competition.
Their League form has been far less convincing though and they were beaten 3-0 at home by West Brom last time out.
Looking at their recent head-to-head form, one result stands out and that was at the end of 2019 when Leicester beat Southampton 9-0 on the road, but other than that they have had some pretty close games and in the League this season, Leicester edged Southampton 2-0 at home.
BETTING – Click here to bet
Leicester 9/10
Draw 26/10
Southampton 61/20
Suggested Bet: Handicap, Leicester (-1) at 27/20
Both of these sides are coming off poor defeats, but I think that Leicester will be too strong for Southampton and will turn this on to win it going away.
Note: All prices correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
