We have the other two FA Cup Quarter Finals on Sunday with the first coming from Deepdale where Preston North End will welcome Aston Villa. The two sides have met six times before in the Championship where four fixtures ended in a draw and the other two ended with victories for either side. Fast forward seven years and Preston remain in the Championship in midtable, their previous round saw them beat promotion hopes Burnley 3-0 at this stadium.
This looks to be a much tougher tie now with their league form being patchy, they ended a six game winless run with a victory at home to Portsmouth 2-1. We expect Paul Heckingbottom to play his strongest side with a forward choice of Emil Riis Jacobsen (10 goals), Milutin Osmajic (7 goals) and Sam Greenwood (5 goals) at their disposal.
The visitors Aston Villa beat Cardiff 2-0 at Villa Park in the previous round, Unai Emery’s side are 9th in the Premiership but only four points outside of the top 4 with nine games remaining. The Midlands Club remain in the Champions League after a 6-1 victory on aggregate over Club Brugge in the last round which now sets up a tie against French Giants PSG who knocked Liverpool out in the previous round.
It will be interesting to see what side Emery plays as Villa have four games in 11 days, they have this contest, Brighton away, Forest at home and then the trip to Paris to face PSG. We expect the visitors will have too much talent at their disposal for Preston but the first goal of the game will be crucial. With this being said we think there is some value in both teams to score, which is top priced at 6/5 with gambling sites that accept credit cards.
Match Betting: Preston 6/1, Aston Villa 4/9 and the Draw 18/5 Kick off 12.30pm Live on BBC One
The second fixture of the day comes from the Vitality Stadium where Bournemouth will host Man City, Andoni Iraola’s side beat Wolves 5-4 on penalties in the previous round in a tie that ended 1-1 in 90 minutes. In the Premiership the homesides form hasn’t been very good losing three and drawing one of their last four games. They lost at home to Wolves (0-1), lost away to Brighton (2-1), drew away to Tottenham (2-2) and more recently lost at home to Brentford (1-2).
That bad run has made them slip down to midtable but they will gain confidence in the fact they beat their opponents when they last met in the league here 2-1.
The visitors Man City beat Plymouth at home in the previous round 3-1 but their recent form hasn’t been very good either. They suffered an exit in the Champions League where they lost 6-3 on aggregate to Real Madrid, then in the Premiership they have only won one of their last four games which was away to Tottenham (0-1). They suffered a home defeat to leaders Liverpool (0-2), a loss away at Forest (1-0) and then in their last game they drew at home to Brighton (2-2). You could say that they weren’t easy games but with the squad disposal Pep Guardiola has they should be winning more games.
The Blue side of Manchester are 5th in the league but given how tight it is for European positions they aren’t guaranteed to get in. This is their only chance of silverware now so you’d expect a good performance with this game having the potential of a few goals.
Match Betting: Bournemouth 11/5, Man City 6/5 and the Draw 13/5 Kick off 15.30pm Live on ITV
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