Brighton urged to seize day against Pep’s City
Brighton midfielder Dale Stephenshasurgedhisteammates to seize a once-in-acareer opportunity to reach the FA Cup final.
Albion are huge underdogs for today’s Wembley semifinal against quadruplechasing Manchester City.
The Seagulls are in the last four of the competition for only the second time in their history and Stephens, who turns 30 in June, admits he is unlikely to have another chance.
“It’s a one-off chance, you don’t really get these opportunities too often. You’ve got to grasp it,” he said.
“No matter what age you be, you might not get this opportunity again. The older ones, like myself, it might be the last chance, so it’s important you don’t let it pass you by. We get to look forward to what will be probably one of the biggest occasions that I’ve been involved in. The occasion, the stadium, it’s what you dreamt about as a young boy and hopefully we can get the job done.”
Brighton, runners-up in 1983, have not beaten City for 30 years.
They have lost their three Premier League games against Pep Guardiola’s team by an aggregate score of 7-1 following promotion in 2017.
City are hopeful top scorer Sergio Aguero will be fit to face Brighton. The Argentinian international striker missed the champions’ midweek Premier League victory over Cardiff after suffering a muscle injury in last week’s win at Fulham.
Watford take on Wolverhampton Wanderers in the other FA Cup semi-final at Wembley tomorrow.