Manchester City vs Chelsea live updates: FA Cup semi-final team ...

Michael Bailey and Ed Mackey

April 20, 2024 at 9:03 AM EDT

Both Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne were brought off before full time in Manchester City's midweek shootout defeat to Real Madrid so, understandably, Pep Guardiola was asked about their fitness.

"Kevin feels well. Erling, we will see," he said.

"Erling felt something, a muscular issue that's why he's not able to continue.

"I don't know, I'm not a doctor. A little bit niggles, a little bit of a problem, we'll see how it plays out."

Chelsea will fancy their chances of winning today given they have appeared in five of the last 10 FA Cup finals, more than any other team. Although, they only won one of those: the 2018 final against Manchester United.

Somewhat surprisingly, Manchester City have only featured in two of them. They did, however, win both of those finals.

Chelsea and Manchester City have plenty of pedigree in this competition, but it is Arsenal (and then Manchester United) who have enjoyed the most FA Cup success.

14 – Arsenal

12 – Manchester United

8 – Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham

7 – Manchester City, Aston Villa

6 – Newcastle, Blackburn

5 – Everton, West Brom

There was big news regarding the FA Cup on Thursday.

It was that, from next season, replays in the competition will be scrapped from the first round onwards.

The other changes include the FA Cup final not being the last domestic match of the season — it will be played on the Saturday of Premier League gameweek 37 — and no FA Cup games will be played in midweek.

Go below for more information on those changes.

GO FURTHER

FA Cup replays scrapped, final to be played on penultimate weekend of season

"They couldn't, could they?"

You could hear that question uttered after every Manchester City win in recent weeks.

But as it has since transpired, they couldn't.

Their hopes of a double treble were brought to a cruel end on Wednesday evening as they were beaten on penalties in the Champions League by Real Madrid after a 4-4 draw over two legs.

Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic saw their penalties saved by Andriy Lunin while Ederson could only keep out Luka Modric.

If the favourites in these two semi-finals both win, we will have a repeat of last season's FA Cup semi-final to look forward to.

Manchester City are heavily fancied to beat Chelsea and, unsurprisingly, so are Manchester United against Coventry.

Although, there is (at least) 180 minutes of football to be played and, if the FA Cup has taught us anything, it is that anything can happen.

Reminder for those who need it, Manchester City won 2-1 in last year's final. Two goals from Ilkay Gundogan either side of a converted Bruno Fernandes penalty helped City to their second trophy of a famous treble.

A couple of constants and a curveball make up the two FA Cup semi-finals.

Once we are done between two of the competition's most successful teams in Manchester City and Chelsea, attention will switch to tomorrow's game.

There is the opportunity for a big upset in that one as Championship side Coventry City will face Manchester United.

Today

Tomorrow

Which two teams do you think will meet in the final?

Capacity: 90,000

We are at one of the true cathedral's of world football today as Wembley Stadium plays host to this semi-final (and tomorrow's).

It is a familiar hunting ground for both of these teams who, fortunately, will never tire of seeing the famous arch on the walk down Wembley Way.

What a stadium!

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Here are the broadcasters for today's game, depending on where you reside.

A slightly unusual kick-off time for this one.

The lesser-seen 5:15pm BST start time which, for those of you in the US, is 12:15pm ET or 9:15am PT.

Hello and welcome to The Athletic's live coverage of one of English football's big days: FA Cup semi-final day!

And we have got the big one up first — Manchester City vs Chelsea.

The holders will be looking to retain their crown, but how much did Wednesday's penalty shootout defeat to Real Madrid take out of them/

We will find out later on, so stay without the course of the day as we build up to kick-off.