Championship leaders Leicester City and their dedicated fans make the trip down to the South Coast tonight to face a Bournemouth side sat 14th in the Premier League, in the fifth round of the Emirates FA Cup.
Leicester arrive at the Vitality Stadium having not won on their last two outings and convincingly beating Birmingham City 3-0 in the previous round of the cup. The Foxes will be looking to advance further in the competition and will be hoping history repeats itself from the 2021 season where they triumphed over Chelsea in the final.
They’ll be without goal-scorer Youri Tielemans this time around but Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Stephy Mavididi and Jamie Vardy lead their scoring charts (10 each) and will be integral if Enzo Maresca’s side are to claim victory this evening.
I caught up with Leicester fan Joe Hayes who is nervy ahead of tonight’s match but hopes that Maresca can guide the Foxes to victory tonight, “I think my heart is saying 3-1 Foxes but my head is saying Dom Solanke is going be just a tiny bit too good for our defence unfortunately.”
He continued, highlighting the fact that the smaller ground and the fan’s being much closer to the action could be the key, “I think it’ll be a tough game tonight on a small pitch at the Vitality. Our pitch is so big that it has always seemed when we travel to these smaller grounds with narrower pitches we don’t perform as well and struggle to play the football we want to”.
With Leicester manager Maresca coming out and saying, “Tonight’s game won’t indicate we are ready for promotion”, it’ll be intriguing to see what side the Italian lines up with and whether the Foxes can cause the upset against Premier League opposition.
Now attention turns to the hosts. The Cherries are yet to record a win in 2024, ending up with four wins, one draw and one loss in December. They sit 14th in the table, having narrowly lost 1-0 to Pep Guardiola’s treble-winning Manchester City and the Vitality last weekend.
I met up with Ryan Puttick and Joshua Richardson who shared their views ahead of the match and their confidence in the Cherries to progress in the competition.
Puttick felt, “I think it’s going be an interesting game, this is probably a bit of a preview for next season as well as an FA Cup game because I feel like Leicester are already in the Prem and we (Bournemouth) are safe (…) It will be interesting to see how seriously they take it”.
He continued, discussing his side’s chance to make it all the way to the semi-finals, “If we beat Leicester and draw maybe a Coventry or a team like that in the next round, there’s a good chance we could be going to Wembley which would be class for our fans and the first time we would’ve been to Wembley in my lifetime.”
Richardson believes the same as Puttick that the Cherries will prevail, “In recent season’s we haven’t really focused on cup competitions and have focused more upon staying in the Premier League or being promoted back into it. But I feel under Iraola we can really progress far in this competition.”
Adoni Iraola famously carried his Rayo Vallecano team to an incredible semi-final finish in the Copa Del Rey in 2021-22 (first time in 40 years), as well as leading them to a 11th place finish after gaining promotion from the Segunda Division that same year. Cherries fans will be hoping he can continue his domestic success at AFC Bournemouth and push the South Coast side towards a famous day at Wembley.
Reverting back to the game tonight, Richardson believes the Cherries will triumph, “If we play a strong team, although Leicester are a strong side with a lot of confidence, I feel like we can get through this round and then we have just one more game before getting to Wembley. If we can avoid maybe Liverpool or Manchester City away, then I have a real strong feeling about Bournemouth getting to Wembley.”
So both sets of fans have spoken, with the Bournemouth faithful expectantly more confident heading into tonight.
So who will prevail? All will be revealed later on tonight on the South Coast…
