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Leicester City seek to cause a cupset away to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the Quarter-Finals of 2023-24 FA Cup.
Victory would see Chelsea reach the semi-finals for the sixth time in eight seasons, whilst Leicester are chasing a first semi-final appearance since they won the competition in 2021.
Team News
Ben Chilwell is set to return for Chelsea after he sat out their Premier League win over Newcastle with a knee injury.
Levi Colwill (toe) and Benoit Badiashile (groin) could also feature if match fit.
Reece James, Lesley Ugochukwu, Christopher Nkunku (all hamstring), Wesley Fofana (ACL), and Romeo Lavia (knock) remain ruled out.
Leicester will be without Jamie Vardy after the forward suffered an unspecified injury which has prevented him from training.
Kasey McAteer, Dennis Praet and Ricardo Pereira (all hamstring) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Chelsea host Leicester at Stamford Bridge on Sunday 17 March at 12:45pm GMT, live on BBC1 in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Chelsea have lost one of ten previous FA Cup ties against Leicester (W7, D2, L1).
- Leicester are winless in five previous FA Cup visits to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge (D1, L4).
- Chelsea have won each of their two previous Quarter-Final ties against Leicester in the FA Cup (W2), having won 5-2 at home in March 2012 then 2-1 away in March 2018- albeit in extra-time.
- Conor Gallagher and Nicolas Jackson have scored in each of Chelsea’s last two FA Cup matches (W2).
- All seven of Leicester’s FA Cup goals this season have been scored by seven different players.
Prediction
Although unbeaten in their last three matches which included a proper energetic attacking display against Newcastle, Chelsea’s defence is still a weak point with two goals conceded in each of those three matches but they surely are favourites to advance such is their attacking quality.
Leicester meanwhile have larger fish to fry in their battle for promotion back to the Premier League so this game might be slightly lower on their priorities, but they have recently ended a dip so can’t be underestimated even despite Vardy’s absence.
I however do expect Mauricio Pochettino’s Blues to get the job done because their attack should be strong enough to beat Leicester’s out-of-form defence, although a clean sheet looks unlikely and defeat would be a huge blow to their hopes of European qualification for next season.
Prediction: Chelsea 2-1 Leicester
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