FA Cup Fifth Round Review: Part One | OneFootball

So much to write about, we broke this one up into two segments.

Aston Villa 2-0 Cardiff City

The FA recently quashed plans to allow Welsh teams in the English Football League to compete for the Welsh League Cup. This would have allowed Cardiff the opportunity to qualify for the UEFA Conference League. Well even in Europe’s third competition Cardiff would probably struggle based on what they served up on Friday night.

Aston Villa dominated the game and the scoreline flattered the away side, who only managed one shot on target. Marco Asensio was at the double and secured Villa the win, but they should have scored more. Two goals from 25 shots and four big chances missed highlights a lack of end product.

This was one of the weekend’s worst ties. Predictable, one-sided and at times lacking in quality. Although shoutout to Cardiff goalkeeper Ethan Hovarth who prevented a baseball score with his saves.

Crystal Palace 3-1 Millwall

There’s a new Karate Kid movie coming out soon featuring Ralph Macchio, Jackie Chan and Liam Roberts may be joining the cast as a late addition after his performance on Saturday. The Millwall goalkeeper threw a mid-air kick which could have left Jean-Phillipe Mateta with brain damage.

Some old geezers will probably be saying Roberts shouldn’t have been sent off for his early challenge on Mateta. What utter woke nonsense that a player is shown a red card for winning the ball before taking out the player! Others had concerns the Palace forward might suffer life changing injuries after the borderline assault.

The Millwall fans certainly enjoyed the moment anyway, as they continued their reputation as English soccer’s classiest fan base by chanting ‘let him die’. What a lovely bunch they are!

Crystal Palace won the match, but Millwall made it a contest. They fought back after conceding twice and only let in a third goal in the final 10 minutes of the match. The Eagles were the dominant team as expected, but the away side did okay for a second tier team who went a man down early on.

Preston North End 3-0 Burnley

After two goalless draws between these sides this season, Preston were finally able to open up a Burnley side who were looking for a tenth consecutive clean sheet in all competitions. The away team were surprisingly poor and were well beaten on the day.

Milutin Osmajic provided the game’s key talking point. The Preston forward scored not long before half time and chose to goad Burnley’s supporters during his celebration. He is currently under investigation for allegedly racially abusing Burnley’s Hannibal Mejbri when the two sides met in January.

It is not easy to comment on Osmajic without conclusive evidence. If he has been falsely accused then it’s pretty amusing that he had the last laugh on Saturday. If not, then his behaviour is utterly sickening. While this may be uncertain, what isn’t is that Preston were by far the better team and have deservedly advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals.

Bournemouth 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers (5-4 on penalties)

Bournemouth are no strangers to having a man sent off when they play against Wolves. In three of the past four meetings between the teams one of their players has seen red. This time it was their opponents who lacked discipline. Matheus Cunha was sent off shortly before extra time came to an end, meaning he was unable to participate in the penalty shootout.

This was a blow to Wolves as Cunha scored their only goal of the game. The away side would go on to miss two penalties, with veteran Matt Doherty and Boubacar Traore unable to find the back of the net with their spot kicks.

Bournemouth’s Dean Huijsen saw his penalty kick saved by Sam Johnstone, but thanks to five other goalscorers, the Premier League high-flyers secured a hard-fought victory.