2025-26 FA Cup: Fourth Round – Birmingham vs Leeds

Birmingham City meet Leeds United in a fourth-round tie of the 2025-26 Emirates FA Cup. 

Victory would see Birmingham reach the fifth round for the first time since 2019-20 season, whilst Leeds seek to move past this stage for the third time in four seasons.

 

Team News

Paik Seung-ho is ruled out for Birmingham City after he suffered a shoulder injury during their goalless Championship draw at home to West Brom on Tuesday evening.

Demarai Gray (calf) could return but Phil Neumann (muscle), Ethan Laird, Jack Robinson (both hamstring), Alex Cochrane (ankle) and Lee Buchanan (knee) remain sidelined.

Leeds will welcome Dominic Calver-Lewin back from illness which saw him miss their 2-2 draw at Chelsea in the Premier League.

Anton Stach and Pascal Struijk are still sidelined with hip injuries.

 

When is Kick-Off?

Birmingham host Leeds at St Andrew’s on Sunday 15 February at 12pm GMT, live on TNT Sports 3 in the UK.

 

Stat Attack

• Birmingham have won one of five previous FA Cup ties against Leeds (W1, L4), although they have met six times overall in this competition after their recent tie in January 2013 was won by Leeds on a replay (W1, D1, L4).
• Leeds have won just one of their four previous FA Cup away visits to Birmingham (W3, L1).
• Two of Birmingham’s four previous FA Cup meetings at home to Leeds ended in 2-1 wins to the visitors, whilst the other two clashes saw both teams claim a 3-0 win each.
• Birmingham are winless in their last nine FA Cup meetings against top-flight opposition (D2, L9), of which Chelsea and Huddersfield took them to replays in 2011-12 and 2017-18 editions respectively at Quarter-Final and Fourth Round stages.
• Leeds have avoided defeat in their last six meetings against lower-league opposition (W5, D1), during which they needed a third-round replay to beat Cardiff in 2022-23 season.

 

Prediction

Currently locked in a huge scrap for the final Championship play-off spot, it will be interesting to see if Birmingham and Chris Davies in particular prioritise the cup or go for a weaker starting line-up with focus on the league, but they have to be more clinical than they were against West Brom.

Leeds meanwhile were defensively sloppy at times to fall 2-0 down at Chelsea but their attack did click in the second half without Calvert-Lewin, which was key to forcing their comeback but their priority is surely on Premier League survival.

This game therefore should be interesting because I feel that the starting line-ups could be key such is the primary need to focus on league matters, although I do think that Leeds will scrape through especially with Calvert-Lewin back.

Prediction: Birmingham 1-2 Leeds

Result: Birmingham 1-1 Leeds (Leeds win 4-2 on penalties)