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FA Cup fifth-round roundup
The 5th round of the 2021/22 FA Cup played out over the last week. The majority of clashes took place across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with the final tie seeing Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield face off on Monday the 7th of March.
The 5th round through up a number of exciting ties and once again saw the Premier League’s elite thrive with Chelsea seeing off Luton, Manchester City beating Peterborough and Liverpool edging past Norwich City.
Crystal Palace, Southampton and Everton also booked their spot in the last-eight, with Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest the only non-Premier League sides now left in the competition.
The draw for the quarter-finals has since been made, which you can check out below:
One tie left to finalise for the #EmiratesFACup quarter-final draw. Which fixture are you most excited for? 🤩 pic.twitter.com/P4R2LFCa3V
— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) March 5, 2022
Upset of the round: Middlesbrough 1-Tottenham 0
Middlesbrough, along Boreham Wood, grabbed the headlines in the 4th round with a rather impressive giant-killing.
Boro were then drawn against Tottenham in the 5th round. And though fans were likely hopeful of a win, it did seem unlikely that Joe Lumley would be able to keep the likes of Harry Kane and Heung-min Son quiet.
In the end, however, Middlesbrough emerged from the clash with a 1-0 win after local lad Josh Coburn came off the bench to smash in a winner during extra time.
“𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐩”
– Neil Maddison, 2022 AD@nmaddo @Jcoburn06 #UTB pic.twitter.com/QFqXWzqLdb
— Middlesbrough FC (@Boro) March 2, 2022
And whilst the game could be viewed as something of a smash and grab for Boro, it is probably fair to say that Middlesbrough were actually the better side throughout much of the tie and neutralised Antonio Conte’s gameplan well.
Game of the 5th round: Southampton 3-West Ham 1
Southampton vs West Ham was one of the only all-Premier League affairs in the 5th round. It was also one of the few games that looked tough to call.
In the end, Southampton came out on top, clinching a hard-fought 3-1 win that was full of end-to-end action.
Romain Perraud opened the scoring for the Saints before Michail Antonio pulled the away side back on level terms after an hour.
However, Southampton went on to score a second from the spot 69 minutes in before Armando Broja put the result beyond down in second-half injury-time:
Signed ✍️ Sealed ✉️ Delivered ✅@SouthamptonFC @armandobroja9#EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/ZfL8t86QIe
— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) March 2, 2022
Tweet of the round
Middlesbrough’s Sol Bamba would grab the headlines in the 4th round for his unimpressed reaction to Boro beating United on penalties, with the centre-back, who only came on in extra time to smash in a penalty, responding to his reaction via Twitter:
I’m too old for this s*** 😂😂😂 https://t.co/K8drynSQYF
— Sol Bamba (@Sol14Bamba) February 4, 2022
And Bamba, who once again came on late in extra time vs Tottenham, has caught the eye of the official FA Cup account for his lack of touches yet again:
3️⃣ in the quarter-finals, @sol14bamba? 👀😂#EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/ITfkOzheHJ
— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) March 5, 2022
Goal of the round
There were a number of impressive goals in the 5th round, with Josh Coburn’s winner for Middlesbrough eye-catching simply due to the amount of power put into the strike.
But the goal of the round should go to Southampton’s Romain Perraud, who picked up the ball around 25 yards out and unleased a thunderbolt of a strike:
One with the left, one with the right 🪄
Two @SouthamptonFC stunners
❤️ for Armstrong
RT for Perraud#EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/gsl3DVZWgJ— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) March 4, 2022
6th round tie to watch: Middlesbrough vs Chelsea
The big sides left in the competition have managed to avoid each other once again, so there is no mega showdown set to take place in this round.
But with Middlesbrough having already taken the scalps of two top-six sides in the season’s competition, it will be interesting to see how they fare against a Chelsea team who struggled to see off Luton.
What the odds say
For all the latest FA Cup odds, check out this link.
Manchester City are the current favourite with odds of 13/8, whilst Liverpool and Chelsea are 5/2 and 9/2 to win the trophy.
In terms of an outside bet, giant-killing Middlesbrough are currently a whopping 50/1 with bet365 to lift the trophy.
Boro are also 28/1 to beat Chelsea in extra time in the next round.
