FA Cup semifinal draw: What to know about Man City, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest

The semi -finals of the FA Cup are set and this season promises showpiece events that are a bit different than usual. Admittedly, frequent winners Manchester City are still in the mix, but next to them are three of the middle class of the Premier League, the kind of parties for whom a trip down Wembley manner tends to mean the tension of a play -off final instead of the dreams of the English season.

Crystal Palace was the first to deserve their place in the hat for the semi -final, crushing Fulham on the road and set the tone for a weekend where it was the way fans who celebrated Cup Glory. Nottingham Forest went all the way to a shooting to find a way along Brighton and Hove Albion.

Not such a drama for Aston Villa on Sunday while they drove past the last remaining championship side in the competition, Preston North End defeated 3-0 in Deepdale. The best of the promotion came at the end, the season of Manchester City apparently on the edge during the break after Evanilson was returned for Bournemouth. The side of Pep Guardiola was given a degree of revenge for a defeat earlier in the season that seemed to throw them in turbulence, an inspired display of replacement Nico O’Reilly that hurled the game. First he rolled in a precise cross for Erling Haaland to score before giving the winner for Omar Marmoush.

Semi -final draw

• Crystal Palace vs. Aston Villa
• Nottingham Forest vs. Manchester City

Tires are played on the weekend of 26 and 27 April.

Crystal Palace

Best finish: Runner-up (1990, 2016)-on the positive side for Palace, Manchester United are not in the last four with them. The Red Devils have ruined the two pilgrimages of the Eagles from South Londs to the north. Depending on your definition of the entire member cup, a competition for English clubs when they were banned from Europe, Palace still has to add a big cup to their trophy cabinet

How they got here: On Saturday morning, the Ebereechi Eze Show, the International of England, was his memory-free best in a 3-0 win in Fulham. Eze scored the first and went four minutes later on another for Ismaila Sarr, a movable fightback after he was under the Cosh in the early exchanges in Craven Cottage. Eddie Nketiah added a third with a quarter hour to play, a series of five 2-0 victories on the road broken in style.

Fulham was the first Premier League opponent Palace in this season’s FA Cup after comfortable victories against Stockport, Doncaster and Millwall.

Opportunities to win it: There is perhaps no more in-form team in the field than Palace, winners of their last five in all competitions and with a record of 10 victories, a draw and two losses in 2025. As recently as last month, they struck Villa in Selhurst Park, Eze Sensational in a competition where Oliver Glasner’s side was at height.

Aston Villa

Best finish: Winners (1887, 1895, 1897, 1905, 1913, 1920, 1957) – one of the Grand Old Clubs of English Football, but few in Wembley in the coming months have seen Villa the FA Cup lift. Indeed, there have been few visits to the final for a club of Villa’s size and history. Since their last victory, they have only been to the final twice and lost to Chelsea in 2000 and Arsenal 15 years later.

How they got here: In a debilitating season, Villa took its way to the semi -finals in an impressive way. West Ham and Tottenham were both beaten 2-1 in Villa Park, Morgan Rogers who were in both tires. Cardiff was then set aside in the round of 16, Marco Asensio at the two -hree.

It was another January loans that illuminated the sixth round, Marcus Rashford shifted his first goal on loan from Manchester United and then another of the place. Jacob Ramsey received the third in the most regulation of victories.

Opportunities to win it: Those names above, all fighting for places in the Front Line of Unai Emery with a few others, speak to the impressive depth available to Villa. This is a team that really has the depth in the right places to compete on several fronts, something of a blessing because they need it in a Champions League campaign that brought them to the quarterfinals. Come to Wembley, they will have experienced both legs of that, as well as a battle for a top five berth with Newcastle. Will the peace of a week be enough for a team that occasionally looks long -legged, regardless of the rotation?

3. Nottingham Forest

Best finish: Winners (1898, 1959) – Just like Villa, this is not a competition where there is a lot of recent glory for forests. Indeed, for many, the relationship of this club with the competition is previously determined by the status as the one who has gone away for Brian Clough, defeated by Tottenham in the 1991 final. Whatever the result is in the semi -final, this season the furthest forest will have gone in the competition since then.

How they got here: It has been a series of high drama for the men of Nuno Espirito Santo, albeit that started a reasonable orthodox fashion with a 2-0 win over Luton. Since then, every game has gone all the way, League One Exeter City who transported their Premier League opposition, the road to punishing, where Matz Sels was the hero. The same again in the next two rounds as Ipswich and then Brighton was 12 meters out.

Opportunities to win it: Displeren Nottingham Forest is a risky movement after they have disturbed so much on the way to third place in the Premier League. Their most careful, defensive and counter -style is very suitable for Cup Football. In the FA Cup of this season they have been in the very spare and have kept every opponent bar Exeter to less than 0.9 xg for two hours of football.

Likewise, this team had the same kind of underlying statistics during their Cuprun that they had in the Premier League this season: an always so light above an average XG difference that hardly screams the Champions League qualification or FA Cup winner. They cannot upset the opportunities forever, right?

4. Manchester City

Best finish: Winners (1904. 1934, 1956, 1969, 2011, 2019, 2023) – The victory in front of Pep Guardiola in May she would draw level with Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham as the third most successful side in FA Cup history, one of the clearest indications of the big six round. City has reached the semi -final in each of the last seven years, reached three finals, winning one and lost to Manchester United last year.

How they got here: It was relatively supple by a favorable draw for the winners of 2023, Salford City hit 8-0 in the third round for a dramatic fourth round draw at Leyton Orient. In the teeth of their struggles, they only slid in a shortage in the first half for Kevin De Bruyne to change the draw. Plymouth Argyle was then beaten for an impressive comeback victory at Dean Court.

Opportunities to win it: The strong favorites who play at their top level, there is no one in the field that City could beat. On the other hand, during this season they have looked a bit short of their peak, a side that can be undone by the counter -the -falling approach that forest, palace and villa are all perfectly prepared for implementing, given the opportunity.

Yet they seem to be the most likely side to cut a jubilant path to the Royal box of Wembley later in the spring. If someone else would beat them to the title, this could be a very special FA Cup story.