Tottenham Hotspur take on Manchester United at Wembley Stadium, their temporary home for the season, in Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final. Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino claims that being in Wembley will not be a home field advantage, but I guess we’ll just have to see if he’s right about that or not.
Both teams come into this match looking to get to the final and then secure their first trophy of the season. For all four semifinalists, it is the last remaining opportunity for a trophy this season.
Both teams come into this one very healthy and with no fresh injury concerns.
For Tottenham, Kyle Walker-Peters and Danny Rose will be hoping to be in contention, with the latter still struggling for match fitness. Meanwhile Toby Alderweireld is another option in the back line after his having made his first league start in six months against Brighton & Hove Albion on Tuesday.
On the other side, Mourinho made seven changes between Sunday’s shameful 1-0 home loss to West Brom and the 2-0 win at Bournemouth last night. The United boss indication further rotations will occur in the FA Cup semifinal against Tottenham.
“Obviously I’m going to change the team. I made changes, I gave a rest to [Nemanja] Matic and [Antonio] Valencia,” he said.
“All the players told me they are here, they want to play [on Saturday].”
Tottenham Hotspur Starting XI prediction: go to this link
Manchester United Starting XI prediction: go to this link
FA Cup Odds: Spurs 14/11 United 32/13 Draw 5/2
FA Cup Outright Winner Odds: Chelsea 7/4 Tottenham 2/1 United 11/4 Southampton 20/1
FA Cup Semifinal Prediction: United 2, Tottenham 1
As always, feel free to post to your own Tottenham and/or United starting XI predictions, as well as your score predictions, in the comments section below.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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