FA Cup on Betfair: Black Cats and holders prowl into last eight but Chelsea are out

Joe Dyer
15 February 2014

Can Sunderland do what the 1973 team did?

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Sunderland and Wigan beat the odds as they get past Southampton and Cardiff to make the quarter-finals of the Cup, while Man City get their revenge over Chelsea in the later game...

"Man City are now the 2.466/4 favourites to lift the FA Cup this year - Sunderland are 19.018/1 with Wigan available to back at 42.041/1."

Sunderland are into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup as a remarkable season continued on Wearside today.

Already in the Capital One Cup final, but residing in the bottom three of the Premier League, Sunderland were underdogs despite playing at home to Southampton.

And, in a close match, it took a moment of dead-ball class to break the two Premier League outfits with Craig Gardner stroking a 25 yard freekick past Kelvin Davis on 49 minutes. The Englishman was backed at a high of 25.024/1 to open the scoring.

That Davis was playing at all surprised some observers with both Mauricio Pochettino and Gus Poyet choosing to make significant changes to the teams that started their last league matches.

And in this battle of the South American managers it was Uruguay 1-0 Argentina as Poyet cajoled his collection of lesser known squad players to a defeat of their more favoured opponents.

Joining Sunderland in the last eight are holders Wigan, who heaped more pain on troubled Cardiff City with a win in Wales.

Uwe Rosler's side went ahead in the 18th minute, were pegged back but saw Ben Watson, scorer of the winner at Wembley last May, fire a rocket past David Marshall to take his team ahead. They never relinquished that lead.

Wigan were matched at a high of 5.79/2 to win.

In the evening kick-off Manchester City got their revenge over Chelsea, who beat them in the Premier League 12 days ago, with a thoroughly deserved 2-0 win at the Etihad Stadium.

With City facing Barcelona on Tuesday night Manuel Pellegrini took the option of making a number of changes, meaning the likes of Joleon Lescott, Javi Garcia, James Milner, and Stevan Jovetic all made rare starts. And with Chelsea almost at full strength City drifted out to a high of 2.526/4 for the win shortly after kick-off.

But after 15 minutes Jovetic put the home side in front when he side-footed home past Petr Cech and City never looked in any danger thereafter. Samir Nasri got City's second midway through the second half and they were only denied a third by an offside flag after Lescott had tapped home with 15 minutes remaining.

The 2-0 Correct Score was matched at 16.015/1, while Man City are now the 2.466/4 favourites to lift the FA Cup this year - Sunderland are 19.018/1 with Wigan available to back at 42.041/1.

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