Weekend Review: Punters gripped by FA Cup fever as favourites make final four 

The FA Cup has been whittled down to its final four following a quarter final weekend that favoured the punters. 

Crystal Palace (2/1) were the first to book their place at Wembley after running out 3-0 winners away at Fulham (3/2), with goals from Eberechi Eze, Ismaïla Sarr and Eddie Nketiah knocking out Marco Silva’s side.

An otherwise drab 0-0 draw at Brighton’s (4/5) Amex Stadium ended in dramatic fashion when visitors Nottingham Forest (3/1) progressed to the semi-finals thanks to another penalty shootout triumph in Saturday’s second game. 

Sunday saw Aston Villa (33/100) ease past a Preston (17/2) side that held on for the first 45 minutes, but three second-half goals – two from Marcus Rashford and a third from Jacob Ramsey – resigned the only non-Premier League team left in the competition to elimination. 

Soon after, Manchester City (11/10) responded to going a goal down at Bournemouth (21/10) in typical fashion, with strikes from Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush enough to send Pep Guardiola’s side into a seventh successive FA Cup semi-final. 

Reflecting on the weekend’s cup contests, Betfred’s Alan Firkins said: “Great turnover for the FA Cup quarter-finals, but Sunday’s results in particular, wherever you looked, had a very punter-friendly feel.

“Little short-term joy then but, as another from the desk confided in me, if City were to come away with ‘just’ the FA Cup this campaign, we’d invariably have our noses nicely in front.

“Forest are the biggest loser in our book, interestingly, and so if the cup is held aloft by either of the other two semi-finalists we’ll be delighted,” he added.

Steve Freeth of bet365 echoed the sentiment, noting: “Slim pickings for us this weekend with punters profiting from two FA Cup Super Boosts involving Crystal Palace and Aston Villa and the Manchester City comeback at Bournemouth where we did our money on bet builders, as well as the added extra of paying out on Haaland scoring two or more thanks to our ‘Sub On, Play On’ concession when Marmoush scored after replacing the Norwegian.  

“In truth, our only highlight was the 0-0 between Brighton and Nottingham Forest.” 

Meanwhile, Betway’s Mike Reading detailed a similarly frustrating weekend of FA Cup action for the bookmaker.

He explained: “The layers got off to a strong start on Saturday as Brighton and Nottingham Forest played out a goalless draw that went to penalties. In the day’s other quarter-final, Fulham were slight favourites against Crystal Palace, but the betting was evenly split. Despite Palace’s impressive victory, it didn’t do much damage to the book. 

“Sunday told a different story. Manchester City reaching a seventh consecutive FA Cup semi-final was a huge win for punters.  

“Not only did we see plenty of support for City before kick-off, but even after they went a goal down, the money kept pouring in for Pep’s men. Second-half goals from the well-backed Haaland and Marmoush had punters celebrating, while our traders were left counting the cost – it was comfortably our worst result of the day.” 

Elsewhere in Europe, Real Madrid (1/5) had to come from behind to secure a 3-2 home win against Leganes (16/1), with a Jude Bellingham strike either side of a Kylian Mbappe brace enough to hand Los Blancos all three points. 

Barcelona (3/10) enjoyed a significantly more comfortable win, running rampant against Girona (9/1) to triumph by a 4-1 scoreline. 

Freeth shed light on the impact of results across Europe, adding: “It was the same story [as the FA Cup] on the continent, with the chief culprit being Real Madrid thanks to Mbappe and Bellingham starring in a win from behind and Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski helping himself to two goals in beating Girona 4-1 a day later. 

“We paid out on Dundee before 20 minutes were on the clock as the hosts went 2-0 up before Rangers fought back to seal a 4-3 victory with a 93rd minute winner and a double payout for bet365 customers. 

“Other notable winning favourites on the continent included a 6-1 win for PSG at Saint-Etienne, with our highlights being the low-scoring games at Athletic Bilbao, Lille and Fiorentina, but that’s clutching at straws!” 

Betway’s Reading also analysed the impact of the scores in Spain.

He remarked: “Real Madrid vs Leganés was the biggest betting event for us of the weekend. A comeback win for Real, featuring two goals from punters’ favourite Kylian Mbappé and one from Jude Bellingham, left us reeling.  

“Thankfully, Atletico Madrid’s 1-1 draw against Espanyol was a decent result for us and offset some of the damage inflicted by the Madrid result.” 

Turning attention to horseracing, the 15/2-backed Godwinson won in the William Hill Lincoln Heritage Handicap at Doncaster, beating out Oliver Show (22/1) and Orandi (13/2).

At Kempton, 2/1 favourite Soprano emerged victorious in the Virgin Bet Snowdrop Fillies’ Stakes, beating Crimson Advocate (11/2) and Rubies from Burma (9/2).

Looking forward, The Grand National is less than one week away and all eyes are on Aintree ahead of one of British horseracing’s biggest events. 

Looking ahead to the action this coming Saturday (5 April), Firkins issued Betfred’s assessment of ones to watch. 

“Iroko and Stumptown have joined Intense Raffles at the head of the market with Betfred, all operating at around 7/1, and the great race has a really wide-open look to it,” he noted. 

“The Flat [racing season] may have kicked in with the Lincoln at Donny last Saturday  – Godwinson prevailed at 15/2, well-backed, for Newmarket-based Yorkshireman William Haggas – but the National Hunt season has yet to play its ace.”