Manchester City and Newcastle United made it through to the Fifth Round FA Cup draw on Saturday but there were times when both looked like becoming victims of a giant-killing.
Pep Guardiola’s Sky Blues are favourites to lift the trophy, according to the Sunday morning FA Cup 2025 betting odds, but at half time they were trailing League 1 Leyton Orient. A 40-yard lob from Jamie Donley hit City keeper Stefan Ortega and landed in the net to spark mayhem in the home crowd. It was a fantastic hit by the young Tottenham loanee and he deserves a lot of credit for the goal but Ortega won’t be in a hurry to watch it again.
There was an element of luck in City’s equaliser as Rico Lewis’s 56th-minute strike took a wicked deflection, and it was left to substitute Kevin de Bruyne to poach a 79th-minute winner to save embarrassment for the reigning Premier League champions. Since his debut in 2016, no player has had more FA Cup goal involvements than De Bruyne’s 26, with nine goals and 17 assists.
In the Saturday tea-time kick-off, Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United had a tricky test away to League 1 leaders Birmingham City and, after the Blues went ahead after just 40 seconds when Ethan Laird finished off a smart corner routine, and the Magpies eventually came out on the right side of a five goal thriller. Joe Willock levelled for the Premier League side though it took the referee four seconds to award the goal using goal-line technology after it appeared Birmingham keeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell had made a miraculous save. As the game ebbed and flowed the returned Callum Wilson gave the Geordies the edge before Tomoki Iwata equalised for the hosts to level at the break. And the game looked to be heading for extra time until Willock popped up again to fire home an 82nd-minute in from a tight angle.
In other FA Cup 2025 news, Chelsea’s trip to Brighton on Saturday night gave the Blues a chance to continue their good form and the Seagulls an opportunity to erase the hideous memory of their 7-0 humiliation at the hands of Nottingham Forest last week, and it was Fabian Hurzeler’s Brighton who won by the odd goal in three at the Amex Stadium.
Bart Verbruggen is another keeper who would prefer to avoid the replays of this weekend’s FA Cup action as he scored a horrific own goal to give Chelsea a fifth-minute lead. Cole Palmer sent in a hopeful cross and the Seagulls’ keeper spilled the ball into his own net. But the hosts were level soon after when Georginio Rutter headed in a lovely cross from Joel Veltman, and Kaoru Mitoma gave Brighton a place in the fifth round when he executed a delicate finish early in the second half.
Ruud’s unhappy return
In one of the SBOTOP picks of the fourth round, Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s Leicester City visited his old stamping ground away to Manchester United at Old Trafford. The Dutch manager spent five successful seasons as a striker with the Red Devils, scoring an impressive 95 goals in 150 matches; but he isn’t finding management quite so easy. His opposite number Ruben Amorin has had it anything but easy since he took over at the Theatre of Dreams and the home fans were groaning again when a shot from Wilfred Ndidi bounced off United keeper Andre Onana and then Bobby Reid and into the net.
Joshua Zirkzee levelled for the Red Devils midway through the second half and then the hosts benefited from the absence of VAR when former Fox Harry Maguire headed an injury time winner from an offside position. Poor Ruud lamented: “We were not defeated in Fergie time, we were defeated in offside time.”
Burnley are the new Rojiblancos
Scott Parker’s Burnley won 1-0 away at Southampton and, in the process the Clarets recorded an astonishing 23rd clean sheet of the season. The Championship side even rested three of their back five, with England U21 keeper James Trafford giving way to Vaclav Hladky and he had little trouble in helping his side to a sixth clean sheet in a row and tenth in 11 matches. Parker’s side has the meanest defence in Europe’s top six leagues with just nine goals conceded in 31 league games, five fewer than Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid. If they can score more goals the Clarets will surely return to the Premier League and the addition of Marcus Edwards in the January transfer window will help, as he climbed off the bench to score the winner.
Burnley and Southampton are on course to swap places for the third season in succession as the Saints are almost certain to be relegated while the Clarets are handily placed in a four-way battle for the two Championship promotion places.
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