Foxes sink Man Utd in FA Cup
While their neighbours are chasing a quadruple, Manchester United now have only one route to ending a four-year trophy drought.
Losing 3-1 to Leicester in the FA Cup quarter-finals yesterday leaves Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with realistically only the Europa League to produce his first trophy as United manager. United face Granada in the quarter-finals of the Europa League.
“We didn’t have the spark tonight and it’s understandable,” Solskjaer said. “They’ve been unbelievable, the last three or four months, playing every three or four days, and it’s just caught up with us — all the games, all the traveling. Thursday night in Milan took a lot out of us, today we didn’t have that extra zip. We just didn’t have enough against a good team.”
But with United second in the Premier League, albeit 14 points behind Manchester City, securing Champions League qualification could be the most significant achievement.
It will be lucrative, too, and for Leicester, who are only a point behind United in third.
But while Brendan Rodgers knows the value of steering Leicester back into the Champions League for the first time since
Claudio Ranieri’s side won the Premier League in 2016, the status of a trip to a first FA Cup semifinal since 1982 is notable.
After Kelechi Iheanacho’s double eliminated United, Leicester have the easier route to the final after being drawn to play Southampton. The other semifinal will pit Man City against Chelsea, who beat Sheffield United 2-0 in yesterday’s other quarter-final.
The FA Cup semifinals next month take place a week before the League Cup final between City and Tottenham. That is Jose Mourinho’s only way of delivering Tottenham’s first trophy since 2008 after the north London club’s elimination from the Europa League on Friday.
But Tottenham helped their chances of qualifying for the Champions
League by beating Aston Villa 2-0 in the Premier League yesterday to move within three points of fourth-place Chelsea.
Tottenham received some assistance from neighbours Arsenal who recovering from 3-0 down to draw 3-all with West Ham, who missed a chance to move level on points with Chelsea after conceding Alexandre Lacazette’s equaliser. —AP