FA Cup semifinal weekend is upon us, and Aston Villa and Crystal Palace, the sides set to face off in semifinal no. 1 at Wembley Stadium on Saturday (12:15 pm ET), haven’t won a trophy in a combined 148 years.
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That is due, in large part, to the fact that Crystal Palace have never won a top-flight league or major cup trophy in their 119-year history. Aston Villa haven’t won one in almost three decades themselves (1996 League Cup), but that’s a drop in the bucket when you start throwing around the word “never.” In fact, Crystal Palace have only ever been in nine cup semifinals prior to Saturday (five in the FA Cup and four in the League Cup), and made just two appearances in finals (both in the FA Cup, in 1990 and 2016). The Eagles aren’t in their best form of the season heading into the weekend, without a win in their last four Premier League games (0W-2D-2L) but they did manage to rescue a point against 2nd-place Arsenal on Wednesday, thanks to Jean-Philippe Mateta’s instant impact off the bench. Mateta leads the way for Palace with 15 PL goals this season, but is yet to score one in the FA Cup.
No matter which way you look at Aston Villa’s season, 2024-25 has been a massive success for Unai Emery’s side — they reached the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions and nearly took down PSG last week; they are within two points of qualifying again next season; and they’re back in a Cup semifinal for the first time since 2020 (since 2015 in the FA Cup). And they will believe they should be winning this trophy, as they undeniably have the deepest squad of any side remaining in the competition. Emery will happily go 22 players deep into his team if he must — and he has in recent weeks — without a single first-team injury causing problems at the moment. Even might Manchester City, who some might call favorites as the last remaining giant, are only comfortably 16 or 17 deep these days.
How to watch Crystal Palace vs Aston Villa live, stream link and start time
Kick off time: 12:15 pm ET Saturday
Venue: Wembley Stadium — London
Streaming: ESPN+
Crystal Palace team news
OUT: Cheick Doucoure (knee), Chadi Riad (knee) | QUESTIONABLE: Ben Chilwell (illness)
Aston Villa team news
No current injuries.
Crystal Palace vs Aston Villa prediction
Neither side will take a ton of risks and expose themselves to the other’s greatest strength — the counter-attack — but Villa have a midfield playmaker with some history in FA Cup games at Wembley, Youri Tielemans, who also happens to be in fantastic form of late, and that should prove the difference with scoring chances hard to come by. Crystal Palace 0-1 Aston Villa.
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