Manchester United and Brighton and Hove Albion will be fighting for a place in the FA CUP finals as the two teams play either other on Sunday afternoon.
Manchester United will be playing in 31st FA Cup semi-final, more than any other team in the competition’s history while Brighton are appearing in their third FA Cup semi-final – they beat Sheffield Wednesday to reach the final in 1983, and lost to eventual winners Manchester City in 2019.
Manchester United will also be chasing to equal Arsenal’ record for most FA CUP appearance (21). They failed to equal it in 2020 when they lost to Chelsea.
Having won the Carabao in February, United are still on course to make it to both major competitions this season and that will only third time they have achieved that in their history, previously do so in 1983 and 1994.
The Red Devils will be eager to pick up a positive result against the Seagulls side, who have won the two meetings between the two sides. They beat United 5-1 last season before their 2-1 earlier on in the season at Old Trafford.
Coming into this game, United were eliminated from Europa league by Sevilla after a 3-0 defeat at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium in Spain while Brighton came from behind to defeat Chelsea 2-1 in the English Premier League.
To make it to the semis, United came from behind to defeat Fulham 3-1 while Brighton beat Grimsby Town 5-0.
The Seagulls also head to Wembley beaming with confidence as they have found the back of the net in all their last nine fixtures across all competitions. Furthermore, they have lost just four of their last 20 games in all competitions.
Even if Wembley is a neutral ground for both teams, The Red Devils have struggled while playing away from Old Trafford this season – having won just two of their last six away games.
Brighton will also need to beat history in order to progress to the final as they have never won at the Iconic Wembley Stadium in all their last five visits.
In terms of the team news, United will be without their center-back paring of Lisandro Martinez and Rafael Varane, who are out injured.Tom Heaton and Alejandro Garnacho also remain out with their ankle problems alongside Donny van de Beek (knee). Harry Maguire is also out suspended for card accumulation.
But the Erik Ten Hag’s team will be boosted by the return of Bruno Fernandes who missed their defeat to Sevilla on Thursday due to a suspension.
For the De Zerbi side, they will be without Evan Ferguson and Joel Veltman, who picked up injuries in the victory at Stamford Bridge.
Jakub Moder (ACL), Tariq Lamptey (knee), Adam Lallana (thigh) and Jeremy Sarmiento (knee) are also out, while goalkeeper Jason Steele is doubtful with a knock, but Levi Colwill is back in the fold after being unable to face his parent club last weekend.
