Leicester City vs. Southampton
Venue: Wembley Stadium
Kick off:6:30PM
Nigeria’s duo of Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi will lead Leicester City charge as they battle Southampton at Wembley Stadium this evening in the second of this season’s FA Cup semi-final ties.
Iheanacho has 14 goals in 30 appearances for the Foxes this season, having netted 10 last term and just two in 2018-19.
The Nigeria international has a goal every 92 minutes in all competitions this term and has a better minutes-per-goal ratio than Harry Kane, Mohamed Salah and Bruno Fernandes.
He has also scored 13 times in 18 FA Cup appearances and has never lost a tie when he has netted.
Iheanacho may be the man of the moment for Leicester, but strike partner Jamie Vardy loves playing at Wembley, scoring in all three of his appearances there for Leicester.
The Foxes are competing in the final four for an eighth time, while fellow Premier League side Southampton have made it this far for a 12th time.
Leicester are well positioned in the Premier League’s top four with a little over a month of the season to go, but right now their focus is on this huge cup tie.
Brendan Rodgers’s side beat Manchester United 3-1 in the last round and also saw off another top-flight opponent in Brighton & Hove Albion in round five, having previously defeated Championship pair Stoke City and Brentford.
Southampton, who are left focusing solely on the FA Cup between now and the end of the season, have also had a mixed set of fixtures thus far.
Ralph Hasenhuttl’s charges have defeated Shrewsbury Town, Arsenal, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bournemouth to reach the semis, keeping a clean sheet in each of those matches.
Indeed, Southampton could become the first team to reach the final of the competition without conceding since Everton did so in 1965-66.
The Saints enter the match on the back of a 3-0 loss to West Bromwich Albion last time out in the league, however, which leaves them 14th in the table.
Leicester are 20 points better off in third, though they also lost their most recent game 3-2 to West Ham United.
In fact, it is back-to-back losses for the Foxes, leading to the inevitable question of whether they can hold on to a place in the top four.
That is something they can answer over the coming weeks, but today’s clash is all about advancing to the showpiece that is the FA Cup final, where one of Chelsea or Manchester City will await.
Since winning the Football League Trophy final in 2010, Southampton have lost each of their last four games at Wembley, including an FA Cup semi-final loss to Chelsea in 2018.
You have to go back to 1982 for Leicester’s most recent FA Cup semi-final, which ended in a 2-0 loss to eventual winners Tottenham Hotspur.
Ultimately, though, those past results will count for little this weekend in a clash between two teams aiming to make some history by going all the way and lifting the most famous domestic cup of them all.
Leicester City possible XI: Schmeichel, Fofana, Evans, Soyuncu, Pereira, Tielemans, Ndidi, Praet, Castagne, Vardy, Iheanacho.
Southampton possible XI: Forster, Walker-Peters, Bednarek, Vestergaard, Bertrand, Walcott, Ward-Prowse, Diallo, Armstrong, Adams, Ings.