Leicester City and Southampton meet at Wembley Stadium in the second semi-final of 2020-21 FA Cup.
With a place in next month’s Final against Chelsea at stake, Leicester are looking to reach Wembley’s showpiece event for the first time since 1969.
Southampton meanwhile are looking to reach the final of this competition for the first time since finishing runners-up in 2002-03 season, and first at Wembley since winning the 1976 FA Cup Final.
Team News
Caglar Soyuncu is in contention to return for Leicester after recovering from Coronavirus which forced him to miss their last two matches.
Cengiz Under (thigh) and Wes Morgan (back) are also set to be available alongside James Maddison, Hamza Choudhury and Ayoze Perez, who were all suspended for their defeat at West Ham last weekend following internal discipline after a breach of Coronavirus rules.
James Justin and Harvey Barnes remain absent as they continue to recover from knee injuries.
Southampton have no fresh injury concerns to report as Will Smallbone (knee), Oriol Romeu (ankle) and Michael Obafemi (unspecified) remain absent.
Stat Attack
- Leicester are unbeaten in four of seven previous FA Cup meetings against Southampton (W3, D1, L1), although none of those clashes took place on neutral territory.
- Southampton have won just one of four FA Cup ties against Leicester in which they were the away team (W1, L3).
- Kelechi Iheanacho has scored three goals in Leicester’s last two FA Cup matches, with two of his three goals coming after half time.
- Southampton have failed to concede in their four FA Cup games so far this season.
- Chris Kavanagh is refereeing a FA Cup game this season involving Leicester and Southampton for the first time this season.
Prediction
Leicester enter this game as favourites with Iheanacho in red hot form but they need to improve defensively now Soyuncu is back, especially after two sloppy displays although they did show signs of improvement in attack at West Ham but without end product.
Southampton meanwhile clearly had one eye on this match in their defeat at West Brom last Monday but they just lacked aggression and energy, which showed in the Baggies managing 13 shots in the first half alone so there is definite improvement to find here.
On that note, this should be a scrappy game but if Brendan Rogers can get his Foxes fine-tuned with Soyuncu, Maddison and Perez back in contention, I think they should have enough for a win if can apply their usual clinical pressing style.
Prediction: Leicester 2-0 Southampton
Result: Leicester 1-0 Southampton
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