FA Cup magic: Third-tier's bottom side brings EPL team to its knees
Reading Time: 2min | Mon. 09.03.26. | 11:14
Modest Port Vale, a club on the verge of relegation to the fourth division of English football, knocked out the mid-table Premier League team, Sunderland, and advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals
FA cup and its miracles strike again!
Last season, there was Plymouth Argyle, who eliminated the mighty Liverpool despite facing relegation from the Championship (which eventually happened, while the Reds won the Premier League), and now the entire England is talking about Port Vale.
The bottom-placed League One side, on the verge of relegation to the fourth division, knocked out the 11th-placed EPL team, Sunderland (1-0), from the FA Cup yesterday and advanced to the quarter-finals of the oldest national football competition in the world.
Their hero, just as in the previous round when they eliminated the Championship side Bristol City, was Ben Waine, who scored the vital winner in both ties.
The 24-year-old New Zealander is a boyhood Newcastle United fan, so his goal against the Magpies' greatest rivals, the Black Cats, was even more significant, and the forward knew how to mark it properly - recreating the Newcastle legend Alan Shearer's well-known celebration.
This way, the popular Valiants reached the FA Cup quarter-finals for only the second time in the club's 150-year history, having made the semi-finals in the 1953/1954 season, which remains their best result in the competition.
So far, apart from Port Vale, six teams have advanced to the last eight (Southampton, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Leeds), while the clash between West Ham and Brentford concludes the Round of 16.
Whoever they are drawn against tonight, the Valiants will be underdogs. Still, can anyone dare to write off the most pleasant surprise of this season's FA Cup edition?
FA CUP - ROUND OF 16
Friday
Wolverhampton - Liverpool 1-3 (0-0)
/Hwang 90+1 - Robertson 51, Salah 53, Jones 74/
Saturday
Mansfield - Arsenal 1-2 (0-1)
/Evans 50 - Madueke 41, Eze 66/
Wrexham - Chelsea 2-4 a.e.t. (1-1)
/Smith 18, Doyle 78 - Okonkwo 40 og, Acheampong 82, Garnacho 96, 120+5/
Newcastle - Manchester City 1-3 (1-1)
/Barnes 18 - Savinho 39, Marmoush 47,65/
Sunday
Fulham - Southampton 0-1 (0-0)
/Steward 90+1 pen/
Port Vale - Sunderland 1-0 (1-0)
/Waine 28/
Leeds - Norwich 3-0 (2-0)
/Longstaff 32, Gudmundsson 43, Piroe 85/
Monday
22.30: (2.95) West Ham (3.45) Brentford (2.35)
***odds are subject to change***