Watkins is keen to help take Villa to the Cup final next month. — Reuters
THE FA Cup semi-finals this weekend come with great promise of riveting action – the kind of stuff that made this tournament the biggest, the best and the oldest of all in the world football.
Wembley Stadium in London will host both fixtures. Crystal Palace face Aston Villa today and Nottingham Forest take on Man City tomorrow.
If form and pedigree were the criteria used to determine who would be best placed to reach next month’s final, Villa and Man City would have an easy time.
But that is far from how things really are.
Palace have a good chance to overcome Unai Emery’s in-form Villans, and they will be determined to do so today.
For their part, Forest have demonstrated more than enough strength and resilience in the league for Pep Guardiola’s City team to underestimate them.
Such has been the rise of Forest under Nuno Espirito Santo this season that they are fourth in the Premier League.
That is just one point and one place behind Man City, and challenging for a Champions League berth.
This Cup competition has, over the years, proved to be the source of much joy and filled in equal measure with enormous pain.
Today and tomorrow, it appears that this will remain unchanged.
None of these four teams appears to be willing to concede any ground to the opposition while simultaneously providing the fans with captivating Cup football.
Villa do appear to have a slight edge over their London adversaries, though, and Ollie Watkins went out of his way this week to rally the troops.
The England striker beckoned his teammates to bounce back from the league defeat to Man City on Tuesday and win today.
Villa have not won a major trophy since 1996, when they clinched the League Cup.
This was not lost on Watkins, who said: “This (season) is the furthest we’ve gotten in the FA Cup since I’ve been at the club.
“We’ve always gone out quite early, and it is disappointing.
“You want to win these competitions, and it’s pleasing that we’re in the latter stages of it.
“I’ve been saying to the boys that one thing I set my eyes on when I joined the club in 2020 was winning a trophy.
“It’s been so long since the club has done that, and it’s the main aim, so this semi-final is massive.”
It will also have a significant impact on Crystal Palace, as they are eager to achieve further success against Emery’s team.
Palace beat Villa in the Carabao League Cup in October and then drew in the league in November before beating them again in the league in February.
