Liverpool set up FA Cup semi-final with EPL rivals City
LONDON: Manchester City and Liverpool just can’t be kept apart this season.
Engaged in yet another tight tussle for the Premier League title, the two rivals from northwest England must now squeeze an FA Cup semi-final meeting into their busy end-of-season schedules.
Liverpool needed a late Diogo Jota strike to edge past second-tier Nottingham Forest 1-0 on Sunday and were paired with City in the draw for the last four.
It means the top two teams in the country will clash in the league at City’s Etihad Stadium on April 10 — City currently lead Liverpool by one point in a fascinating title race — and then in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley Stadium on the weekend of April 16-17.
In and around those games are a pair of Champions League quarter-final legs for each of them, with City taking on Spanish champions Atletico Madrid and Liverpool facing Benfica.
It could be a make-or-break period of the season, with squad strength and player rotation proving key.
The other FA Cup semi-final match will be a London derby between Chelsea and Crystal Palace.
Forest had dumped out holders Leicester and Arsenal on their run to the last eight and could easily have caused another shock had the fine margins gone their way at the City Ground.
But Liverpool’s improbable bid for a quadruple of trophies — having already captured the League Cup — remains on course thanks to Jota’s 78th-minute winner as he stretched to meet Kostas Tsimikas’ cross for his 19th goal of the season.
SPURS BOLSTER TOP-FOUR BID
In the Premier League, Harry Kane and Son Heung-min were at it again on Sunday.
The most lethal attacking partnership in Premier League history combined for all three of Tottenham Hotspur’s goals in a 3-1 win over West Ham United in a big result in the race for Champions League qualification.
Kane set up Son for the second and third goals at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, having already sent in the cross that West Ham defender Kurt Zouma turned into his own net under heavy pressure from Son.
The win saw Tottenham climb above West Ham and Manchester United into fifth place three points behind fourth-place Arsenal, who have played one game less than their north London rivals.
Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2022
