| Referee | Anthony Taylor |
| Assistant | Gary Beswick |
| Assistant | Lee Betts |
| Fourth Official | Robert Jones |
| VAR | Craig Pawson |
| Assistant VAR | Nick Hopton, John Brooks |
Eagles Head To Wembley With Plenty Of Hopes And Dreams
25/04/2025 06:38
Well, here we are, the big weekend as the Eagles take on Villa to battle it out to reach the FA Cup Final. Here’s hoping that Villa have had enough fun for one season and the underdogs have their day.
MATCH INFORMATION
| 5.15pm kick off – 26 April 2025 |
| Wembley, South Way, London HA9 0WS |
PREVIOUS MEETING
| 14/02/2010 – We have to go back several years to find the last meeting between the two sides in the FA Cup. The tie was drawn at Selhurst Park where a 2-2 draw was played out, before Villa handed the Eagles a cup exit at Villa Park where the score was 3-1. |
MATCH OFFICIALS
TEAM NEWS
PALACE – Chadi Riad, and Cheick Doucoure continue to miss out, while Ben Chilwell will be assessed after illness which saw him miss the draw with Arsenal.
VILLA – No injury concerns.
DISCIPLINARY RECORD
This is the section of our match preview that highlights those that have not been the best of friends with match officials as the season goes on. Of course, they all begin with a clean slate, but we will start to see those that will be heading for a ban or two as the campaign progresses.
| RED CARDS – Daichi KAMADA (1), Eddie NKETIAH (1), Marc GUEHI (1), Chris RICHARDS (1) |
| YELLOW CARDS (over 7.5) – Will HUGHES (11), Daniel MUNOZ (9), Morgan ROGERS (9), Jefferson LERMA (8) |
FORM GUIDE
Last FIVE meetings between the two sides;
| 25/02/2025 | Palace 4-1 Villa |
| 23/11/2024 | Villa 2-2 Palace |
| 30/10/2024 | Villa 1-2 Palace |
| 19/05/2024 | Palace 5-0 Villa |
| 16/09/2023 | Villa 3-1 Palace |
Last FIVE results for Palace:
| 23/04/2025 | Arsenal 2-2 Palace |
| 19/04/2025 | Palace 0-0 Bournemouth |
| 16/04/2025 | Newcastle 5-0 Palace |
| 12/04/2025 | City 5-2 Palace |
| 05/04/2025 | Palace 2-1 Brighton |
Last FIVE results for Villa:
| 22/04/2025 | City 2-1 Villa |
| 19/04/2025 | Villa 4-1 Newcastle |
| 15/04/2025 | Villa 3-2 PSG |
| 12/04/2025 | Southampton 0-3 Villa |
| 09/04/2025 | PSG 3-1 Villa |
FA CUP FORM
Aston Villa were drawn against the last Championship side, Preston North End, in the quarter finals which they won 3-0. Last season, Villa lost to Chelsea in the Fourth Round.
The two sides have only met three times in the FA Cup, but Palace have not won any of them. The last meeting was in 2010 (see above) which went to a replay. Before that, you have to go back to 1962 when Villa won 4-3 and even further back to 1913 which Villa also won 5-0.
RECORD AGAINST VILLA
| Played | 56 |
| Won | 17 |
| Drawn | 16 |
| Lost | 23 |
FORM PLAYERS ACCORDING TO WHO SCORED
This is the section of our match preview where we list two players from each side that are top of the ratings by our friends over at Who Scored. Obviously, there are no ratings to share at the moment but that will soon change!
| Youri TIELEMANS | 7.09 |
| Daniel MUNOZ | 7.07 |
| Ebere EZE | 7.00 |
| Morgan ROGERS | 6.92 |
ONE TO WATCH
| MARCUS RASHFORD |
| FORMER CLUBS – Fletcher Moss Rangers, Manchester United, Aston Villa (loan) |
| The Manchester United loanee seems to have had a new lease of life in his stint at Villa Park after joining the club in January, and certainly had more fun than at Old Trafford. Whether or not the move is made permanent in the summer, the run of games has certainly shown that he still has something to offer potential suitors. |
THE NUMBERS
Villa have won none of their last 4 matches against Palace in all competitions (D1 L3), conceding 13 goals. Palace knocked them out of the League Cup earlier this season, with Spurs the only side to eliminate them from both the FA and League Cups in the same campaign in 1968-69.
Palace have faced Villa 3 times in the FA Cup and have been eliminated each time, losing 5-0 in the third round in 1912-13, 4-3 in the third round in 1961-62 and 3-1 in a fifth round replay in 2009-10.
Villa have reached the FA Cup semi-final for the first time since 2014-15, beating Liverpool 2-1 to reach the final. They've reached 11 FA Cup finals, with only 7 teams featuring in more.
This is Palace's sixth FA Cup semi-final and they've alternated between going out at this stage (1976, 1995, 2022) and reaching the final (1990, 2016) in their previous 5 semi-finals.
Villa have lost 6 of their last 8 games at Wembley, with this their first since losing 2-1 to Manchester City in the 2020 League Cup final. Their 2 wins in this run came in 2-1 victories against Liverpool (2015 FA Cup semi-final) and Derby County (2019 Championship play-off final).
Palace knocked Fulham out 3-0 in this season's FA Cup quarter-final, having been eliminated in 8 of their previous 10 FA Cup ties against Premier League sides. They last knocked out more than one Premier League side in a season in 2015-16, the last time they reached the final (four teams).
Villa manager Unai Emery has progressed from each of the 4 single-legged semi-final cup ties he's managed in, all with Paris Saint-Germain across 2016-17 and 2017-18 in the Coupe de la Ligue (4-1 vs Bordeaux, 3-2 vs Rennes) and Coupe de France (5-0 vs Monaco, 3-1 vs Caen).
Palace manager Oliver Glasner is looking to become the first Austrian manager to reach an FA Cup final and Austria would be the first new nation represented by a manager in the showpiece event since Germany in 2021 (Thomas Tuchel for Chelsea).
In domestic cups this season (FA and League Cup), Marcus Rashford has had a hand in 6 goals (4 goals, 2 assists) for Manchester United and Villa. Since the start of 2016-17, he has been involved in 40 goals in 60 games these competitions (26 goals, 14 assists), more than any other Premier League player. He is yet to score or assist in an FA Cup semi-final, however, in 5 attempts.
Palace's Ismaïla Sarr has been involved in 4 goals in 2 starts against Villa this season (3 goals, 1 assist), and in his 5 starts against Villa in all competitions in his career, he has either scored (5 goals) or assisted (2 goals) in each start.
KEY CLASH
| WILL HUGHES v MARCO ASENSIO |
| How different can two players be in the middle of the park? The Palace combative midfielder will be in his element on the Wembley pitch against the PSG loanee who has oozed class in his short stint in Birmingham. |
PRE-MATCH STATS
This is the section of our match preview where we keep a tally on the statistics for Palace players as the campaign continues and how they compare to other Premier League players.
| Goals | Jean-Philippe MATETA 14 (8th) |
| Assists | Ebere EZE 8 (9th) |
| Passes | Marc GUEHI 1631 (21st) |
| Tackles | Daniel MUNOZ 109 (2nd) |
| Touches | Marc GUEHI 2063 (19th) |
| Shots | Ebere EZE 94 (5th) |
| Fouls | Will HUGHES 60 (4th) |
| Dispossessed | Ebere EZE 44 (19th) |
| Saves | Dean HENDERSON 96 (6th) |
| Clearances | Maxence LACROIX 177 (6th) |
| Big Chances Missed | Jean-Philippe MATETA 16 (5th) |
TEB PREDICTION
The question is, do we predict, or don’t we predict? The nerves are settled at the moment but the way Villa have been playing this season in both the Champions League and Premier League is rather ominous, but every underdog has their day, right? The form has not been ideal heading into the game but perhaps that sets a false sense of security and a surprise is on the cards, to be sprung by Olive Glasner and his men. We can only do one thing, and back the Austrian and his players to the hilt.
| PREDICTED SCORE: 2-1 to Palace (AET) |
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