The second FA Cup semi-final takes place on Sunday with Leicester City and Southampton bidding to set aside their recent Premier League struggles and earn a return trip to Wembley next month. The Foxes began the weekend third in the Premier League but back-to-back defeats mean they are fighting for Champions League qualification as well as to win an FA Cup final at the sixth time of asking.
Southampton have been in league free fall since beating Liverpool on January 4 -- they have won just two matches since -- but the FA Cup has offered them some solace with four games bringing Ralph Hasenhuttl's eight goals scored and none conceded. Here is how you can watch the match and what you need to know:
Viewing information
- Date: Sunday, April 18
- Time: 1:30 p.m. ET
- Location: Wembley Stadium -- London, United Kingdom
- TV and Live stream: ESPN+
- Odds: Leicester -118; Draw +250; Southampton +320 (via William Hill Sportsbook)
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Storylines
Leicester City: It has been a gruelling season for Leicester City, who were competing in the Europa League and have been battling to preserve their top four berth in the Premier League whilst also chasing their first ever FA Cup. "Personally, I prefer it," Jamie Vardy said of Leicester's tough fixture list on CBS Sports' ¡Que Golazo! podcast. "You've not got enough time in between the games to think about what happened, come off a loss, you've now got a full week to be thinking about the game coming up in a couple of days. To rectify things or keep the momentum going."
Vardy's recent struggles in front of goal have not aided the Leicester cause even if Kelechi Iheanacho has picked up some of the goal scoring burden. Now would be the perfect moment for the 34-year-old to strike form again.
Southampton: The Saints' form has been even worse than Leicester's with only three wins in the league since a draw at Arsenal in mid-December that propelled them into third. They are 14th but their Premier League struggles have not infected what their manager refers to as the 'Cup team', who have swept aside Arsenal, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bournemouth in the last three rounds.
"I hope we see the 'Cup team'," Hasenhuttl said. "This is a team that hasn't conceded one goal in the competition so far. This is the basics, the fundamental of being successful and having a chance to go to the next round.
"The face we have shown in the FA Cup so far is a very good one. A Cup final definitely can turn things 100%, around 360 degrees and then it would be a super-successful season, definitely."
Prediction
Neither of these teams come into the tie in the best of form but Leicester's difficulties seem more like a wobble and less like the consistent slide of Southampton, they would be a more likely team to show an improvement in form. Pick: Leicester 2 Southampton 0
