Manchester City is the only thing standing in the way of a soccer fairy tale in the FA Cup.
Take away City — the behemoth of the English game over the past decade — and the clubs remaining in the famous old competition heading into this weekend's quarterfinals have not won a major trophy between them this century.
Heck, four of them have never won any major silverware.
What a chance, then, for Fulham, Crystal Palace, Brighton, Nottingham Forest, Preston, Aston Villa and Bournemouth to create some history and spark some more life into English soccer.
In the modern-day English game, trophies and titles are typically concentrated in the hands of a few clubs. Leicester (2016) is the only team outside a group of five — Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United — to have won the Premier League since Blackburn in 1995. Only three teams outside that star quintet have won the FA Cup this century — Portsmouth (2008), Wigan (2013) and Leicester (2021).
This season might prove an outlier.
Newcastle upset Liverpool in the English League Cup final at Wembley Stadium this month to capture its first major domestic trophy in 70 years.
“Almost every fan I looked up at in Wembley was crying," Newcastle striker Alexander Isak said about the club's biggest moment in a generation.
Imagine how fans of Fulham, Palace, Brighton and Bournemouth — clubs now firmly in the Premier League's middle class — would feel if they were to win the FA Cup for the first time and guarantee a place in the Europa League?
It could be on, too.
City might be the bookmakers' favorites but Pep Guardiola's team has been a shadow of its former self this season and is playing away to Bournemouth, where it has already lost in the league.
City has only won four of its last 10 games in all competitions — and two of those victories were against lower-league opposition in the FA Cup.
Here's a look at the lineup for the quarterfinals:
Fulham vs. Crystal Palace (Saturday)
Both teams are established members of the Premier League and, sitting in mid-table, are safe from relegation this season. That means they are free to throw all their focus into the FA Cup.
Fulham, which ousted Man United in the last 16, has had two runs to cup finals — in the FA Cup in 1975 and the Europa League in 2010 — but lost them both.
Palace was a finalist in the FA Cup in 1990 and 2016, losing both times to Man United.
Brighton vs. Nottingham Forest (Saturday)
Both of these clubs have more than the FA Cup on their minds.
Forest, a back-to-back European champion in 1979 and ‘80, is in third place in a remarkable Premier League campaign and could be returning to Europe’s top competition again. No stranger to silverware, Forest has won the English top-flight title, two FA Cups and four League Cups — but none of them have come since 1990.
Brighton, meanwhile, is in seventh place in the league and — lying just one point behind fifth-place Man City — has a realistic shot of qualifying for the Champions League for the first time. What would fans prefer, though — Champions League qualification or winning the FA Cup for a first major trophy?
Brighton was the FA Cup runner-up in 1983 — also to Man United.
Preston vs. Aston Villa (Sunday)
Two historic clubs in their own right find themselves in very different positions.
Villa — the European champion in 1982 and a seven-time winner of both the league and the FA Cup — is back in the big time under Spanish manager Unai Emery and has reached the Champions League quarterfinals this season. Still, the club hasn't won a trophy since the League Cup in 1996.
Preston was a founder member of the Football League in England, winning the first two league titles in 1889 and '90, and also won the FA Cup in 1938. The team was last in the top flight in 1961 and is the only non-Premier League club in the quarterfinals.
Bournemouth vs. Manchester City (Sunday)
Those seeking some romance in the FA Cup will no doubt be behind Bournemouth, which has never been in a cup final and hasn't finished higher than ninth place in England's top flight.
Indeed, Bournemouth had never played in the top division before 2015 but is now regarded as a forward-thinking club with a highly rated manager, Andoni Iraola — all while playing in its cozy 11,300-capacity Vitality Stadium. It has already beaten City, Arsenal, Tottenham and Forest there this season.
City is looking at the FA Cup to save its disappointing season, after effectively relinquishing the Premier League following four straight titles and not even reaching the Champions League's last 16.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Steve Douglas, The Associated Press
