Crystal Palace and Aston Villa meet this weekend in the first FA Cup semi-final, and it’s live on talkSPORT.
The Eagles and Villans are two clubs starved of success, and the chance to end their respective silverware droughts is just two games away.
Villa haven’t won a trophy since 1996 when they picked up the League Cup at the old Wembley.
Meanwhile, Palace are one of the only current top-flight clubs never to pick up a piece of silverware.
If Oliver Glasner’s men could do it, they would be legends forever.
But first, they have to get past an in-form Villa side led by Unai Emery.
Crystal Palace vs Aston Villa: Back on track
When Marcus Rashford moved from Manchester United to Villa Park on loan in January, it was a move that could have gone either way.
This was a player low on confidence and game time, but after a slowish start, the England international is starting to prove why he’s always been rated so highly.
Rashford has had the odd poor game, but more often than not, he has delivered for Villa and is even starting to keep Ollie Watkins on the bench.
Villa do have an option to buy inserted into the deal with United, but talkSPORT understands Rashford is eyeing a move to a huge European club.
In truth, it would be strange if he decided to leave Villa, but his wages are likely to be a problem for the Villans, and that could see this turn into a short but sweet relationship.
- Aston Villa have won none of their last four matches against Crystal Palace in all competitions (D1 L3), conceding 13 goals. Palace knocked them out of the League Cup earlier this season, with Spurs the only side to eliminate them from both the FA and League Cups in the same campaign in 1968-69.
- Crystal Palace have faced Aston Villa three times in the FA Cup and have been eliminated each time, losing 5-0 in the third round in 1912-13, 4-3 in the third round in 1961-62 and 3-1 in a fifth round replay in 2009-10.
- Aston Villa have reached the FA Cup semi-final for the first time since 2014-15, beating Liverpool 2-1 to reach the final. They’ve reached 11 FA Cup finals, with only seven teams featuring in more.
Crystal Palace vs Aston Villa: Team news
The Eagles drew 2-2 with Arsenal on Wednesday night, and Glasner elected not to start a couple of his key players.
Jean-Philippe Mateta and Ismaila Sarr came on as substitutes, but they will almost certainly start on Saturday.
Chris Richards will also return from his one-match ban for two yellow cards against Bournemouth.
Villa were also in midweek action, losing 2-1 to Manchester City, and Emery will probably shuffle his pack.
John McGinn, Marco Asensio, Tyrone Mings and Ian Maatsen are among the players who could come in.
- This is Crystal Palace’s sixth FA Cup semi-final and they’ve alternated between going out at this stage (1976, 1995, 2022) and reaching the final (1990, 2016) in their previous five semi-finals.
- Aston Villa have lost six of their last eight games at Wembley, with this their first since losing 2-1 to Manchester City in the 2020 League Cup final. Their two wins in this run came in 2-1 victories against Liverpool (2015 FA Cup semi-final) and Derby County (2019 Championship play-off final).
- Crystal Palace knocked Fulham out 3-0 in this season’s FA Cup quarter-final, having been eliminated in eight of their previous 10 FA Cup ties against Premier League sides. They last knocked out more than one Premier League side in a season in 2015-16, the last time they reached the final (four teams).
Crystal Palace vs Aston Villa: What has been said?
After securing a hard-fought draw at the Emirates, Glasner has sent a clear message to his team.
He said: “I’m really proud of the players and how they performed today.
“It was a great performance. It will help us, because I think it was the best performance for weeks now and this was important. We were talking about entering the semi-final with belief, with courage and with confidence, and this is what we can take from today.
“We have to show the same focus, the same discipline, the same belief, the same confidence, and the same tactical discipline in and out of possession. We have to move the ball so quickly like we did today. We have to be focused in our set plays, in attack and in defence, and this will be important.
“But of course, we need the talent, we need the quality of our players, we need the spirit, we need the tactical discipline, and of course we need our heart and our mind. I think especially for these two, this performance was very positive.
“We’re very excited. I think everyone who is connected with Palace is very excited, but I think on the other side, it’s also important to stay calm. It’s a football game, and we showed today that we are in good shape. Aston Villa are in great shape as well.”
- Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has progressed from each of the four single-legged semi-final cup ties he’s managed in, all with Paris Saint-Germain across 2016-17 and 2017-18 in the Coupe de la Ligue (4-1 vs Bordeaux, 3-2 vs Rennes) and Coupe de France (5-0 vs Monaco, 3-1 vs Caen).
- Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner is looking to become the first Austrian manager to reach an FA Cup final and Austria would be the first new nation represented by a manager in the showpiece event since Germany in 2021 (Thomas Tuchel for Chelsea).
- In domestic cups this season (FA and League Cup), Marcus Rashford has had a hand in six goals (4 goals, 2 assists) for Man Utd and Aston Villa. Since the start of 2016-17, he has been involved in 40 goals in 60 games these competitions (26 goals, 14 assists), more than any other Premier League player. He is yet to score or assist in an FA Cup semi-final, however, in five attempts.
- Crystal Palace’s Ismaïla Sarr has been involved in four goals in two starts against Aston Villa this season (3 goals, 1 assist), and in his five starts against Villa in all competitions in his career, he has either scored (5 goals) or assisted (2 goals) in each start.
Crystal Palace vs Aston Villa: Date and how to follow
This FA Cup semi-final will take place on Saturday, April 26.
The match at Wembley will kick-off at 5:15pm.
talkSPORT will have live coverage from north London, with Adrian Durham serving as your presenter.
Commentary will come from Sam Matterface and former West Ham striker Dean Ashton.
To tune in to talkSPORT through the website, click HERE for the live stream.
You can also listen via the talkSPORT app, on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.
talkSPORT.com will also regular updates on our live football blog.
The match will also be shown on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
