2023-24 Women’s FA Cup: Semi-Finals – Tottenham vs Leicester

Tottenham host Leicester at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the opening semi-final of 2023-24 Women’s FA Cup.

Victory would see Tottenham or Leicester reach their very first Women’s FA Cup Final, having both reached this stage for the first time in their history.

 

Team News

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Tottenham have no fresh injury concerns to report ahead of this match, with players who have been on international duty all available for selection.

Leicester will welcome Janina Leitzig and Shannon O’Brien back into contention following their recoveries from injury

Courtney Nevin (hip) and Denny Draper (knock) remain sidelined.

 

When is Kick-Off?

Tottenham host Leicester at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday 14 April at 12pm BST, live on BBC2 in the UK.

 

Stat Attack

• Tottenham lost their only previous Women’s FA Cup tie against Leicester by a 3-1 result after extra time, which came in the Fourth Round of 2021-22 edition.
• Leicester won their only previous visit to Tottenham in the Women’s FA Cup (W1).
• All five of Tottenham’s Women’s FA Cup goals this season have been scored in the second half.
• Shannon O’Brien, Janice Cayman, Deanne Rose and Jutta Rantala have all scored twice for Leicester in this season’s competition.

 

Prediction

Sat mid-table in the Women’s Super League and unbeaten in their last three games, Tottenham can afford to throw everything into this match because they won’t have a better opportunity to reach Wembley but they don’t tend to score more than one goal in most games this season.

That particular issue will have to change here because it might well be a case of needing to score twice given their defensive vulnerability, although they’ve won their last two games by 1-0 results which is a positive to bring into this semi-final.

Leicester meanwhile are in a similar position to Tottenham but are winless in four of their last five games and narrowly lost to Spurs last month – albeit at Brisbane Road, but do have their own threats in Jutta Rantala and Janice Cayman amongst others.

This clash however does have a maiden place in the final at stake for both teams so I wouldn’t be surprised if this is another tightly fought battle, but Spurs should have enough if can find a rare second goal in front of a huge crowd at the club’s main stadium.

Prediction: Tottenham 2-1 Leicester

Result: Tottenham 2-1 (AET) Leicester