3 days ago
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Fulham fan Richard Hirst, presumably emailing in from south western France, is feeling the tension ahead of kick-off:
“Lots of nerves and tension in SW France as well as SW6. But I’m confident (who am I kidding!) that we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of our first cup final with a return visit. COYW.”
Team news
Fulham: Leno; Castagne, Andersen, Bassey, Robinson; Berge, Lukic; Willian, Pereira, Iwobi; Muniz.
Subs: Benda, Diop, Cuenca, Sessegnon, Reed, Cairney, Smith Rowe, Traoré, Jiménez.
Crystal Palace: Henderson; Muñoz, Richards, Lacroix, Guéhi, Mitchell; Lerma, Wharton; Sarr, Eze, Mateta.
Subs: Turner, Clyne, Franca, Kamada, Nketiah, Esse, Chilwell, Devenny, Kporha.
It’s a beautiful sunny morning in west London and Craven Cottage, though not renowned for its rocking atmosphere, should be bang up for this one. The prize of a Wembley appearance for these two clubs is a biggie.
Preamble
It’s FA Cup quarter-final weekend, with the first of these four slightly unlikely ties – Manchester City apart – coming in the form of a London derby at Craven Cottage. Fulham and Crystal Palace are both chasing history in this competition this season, having never lifted the cup. Palace came close nearly a decade ago in that 2016 final against Manchester United, (Alan Pardew’s dance, Jesse Lingard’s goal and all that) while it’s been 50 years since Fulham last got all the way to a Wembley showpiece. One of them is guaranteed a semi-final trip to north London at least.
Jean-Philippe Mateta looks set to make his return after suffering a nasty head injury in Palace’s previous FA Cup game against Millwall, with both teams fortunate enough to have come through the international break without a long list of absentees.
This is a really tough one to call, but should be uber-competitive: you’d have to go a fair distance to find two sets of supporters who are more up for the cup. Kick off is at 12.15pm GMT, so let’s get going – team news will be upon us shortly.
