Preston North End and Aston Villa meet in the quarter -finals of the FA Cup on Sunday with a trip to Wembley Stadium for grabbing.
Preston is the only lower league side that remains in the tournament and had managed to meet a Premier League club so far.
They have passed one up and down campaign in the championship, in 14th place in the table, but they were able to add some shine to their season by reaching the FA Cup semi-final for the first time since 1963-64.
Villa is now 24 places above their opponents in the pyramid, and although they are not favorites for the competition with seven -time champions Manchester City still in the mix, they get a strong chance.
The side of Unai Emery has proven their value in the Champions League this season, and they are also competing for a top-four finish in the tightly packed Premier League table.
With a four-match winning streak under their belts that come in this game, they will have faith in their chances of reaching a first FA Cup-Halve final in 10 years.
Here we dive in some of the most important songs prior to Sunday's collision.
FA Cup quarterfinals is here. #pnefc pic.twitter.com/2o0flxwcdo
– Preston North End FC (@PNEFC) 24 March 2025
What is expected?
This is the first meeting between Preston and Villa since December 2018 and 1-1 draw on Deepdale in the championship.
In fact, their last three games all have the level of the level, which both parties probably want to avoid this weekend, because extra time and possibly punishments would follow.
Preston has only won one of their last 15 meetings with Villa in all competitions (D9 L5), with that only victory at home in the championship in October 2016 (2-0).
Both Preston and Villa are advanced from three of the six previous FA Cup tires between the sides, with this the first such meeting since a 1-0 win for the Villans in January 1967.
And it is the visitors who are expected to be at the top, whereby the OPTA -SUPERCOMPUTER gives them a 65.9% chance of victory in 90 minutes.
In the meantime, Preston only has a 15.6% chance of winning without extra time, while there is a chance of 18.4% on a fourth consecutive draw in this fixture.
Home Comfort
In this round, Preston will attract attention as the only survivors from outside the Premier League, who also brings the greatest chance of an upset region.
They have already beat Charlton Athletic, Wycombe Wanderers and Burnley to reach this stage, but Villa is a different challenge.
Preston's problem for a large part of this season was too many peers, with 17 in their 38 champion competitions so far, so that they are sitting in the bottom half of the table.
However, one thing that went on its way is a strong record at Deepdale, which they will hope to give them a lead this weekend.
They are unbeaten in their last 15 games in all competitions at home (W6 D9) and have not admitted no more than one goal during this run, with only nine in general.
Their comfortable home victory on Burnley in the fifth round was a highlight of this run, because they ruthlessly stopped the line of the Clarets of nine consecutive clean sheets while standing the quarterfinals for the first time in 59 years.
Due to their last quarter-final draw in 1965-66, she lost to Manchester United, which means that they offer to reach a first semifinal since 1963-64, when they reached the final before they were defeating West Ham.
Preston has not had the FA Cup since 1938 and has not had a reputation as gigantic murderers in recent years.
The LilyWhites have lost 18 of their last 19 FA Cup matches against top-flight opponents, with the only exception during this run a 4-1 win in Derby County in the fourth round of 2007-08.
Preston, however, hit Fulham from the EFL cup of this season with a beautiful penalty shoot-out victory in which 34 stairs were taken, but they fell to Arsenal in the next round.
Villa looking for a Wankel Spark
With a quarterfinals of the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain also on the horizon for Villa, these are exciting times for the fans.
The FA Cup has been tipped as their best chance to end their 29-year waiting time for silverware since winning the EFL cup in 1996, but since 1957 they have triumphed there in this competition.
Villa has shown their references in the FA Cup and defeated West Ham, Tottenham and Cardiff City extensively in home, with 57 shots in total over those competitions, with 22 of those attempts that hit the target.
Villa, however, only won one of their last eight games in the FA Cup (D2 L5) and defeated Middlesbrough with 1-0 in the third round of last season. They have also lost nine of their last 15 games on the road in all competitions.
It is a problem that Emery will be solved, especially in view of the undefeated line of Preston at home.
This is the first performance of Villa in the last eight since 2014-15, a season in which they are in the final Hartzeer members with a defeat against Arsenal under Tim Sherwood, but Villa did it historically well when reaching this phase of the tournament.
They won each of their last four games at this stage and beat West Brom 2-0 on their way to the last 10 years ago.
Villa won each of their last four games before the international break also gave permission once in a much-lured boost prior to the run-in this season.
Players to watch
Preston North End – Robbie Brady
Brady scored his first career FA Cup goal at his 13th performance in the competition against former Club Burnley.
It was also his first goal for Preston since February 2024, when he hit Blackburn Rovers in the championship.
He scored with his only shot on goal in that match, but also made the most passes in the last third (15) and used the most crosses (five) of every Preston player.
Aston Villa – Marco Asensio
Asensio has been involved in nine goals (six goals, three assists) in its last seven starts in the Primary Cup competition of his competition (Copa del Rey, Coupe de France and FA Cup).
He scored both goals from Villa in their 2-0 win over Cardiff in the fifth round and has seven goals in all competitions for Emery's side.
Asensio has also scored five of the seven 'big' opportunities that he fell to him since he made his villa debut in February.
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