Bournemouth vs Leicester prediction: ENGLAND: FA Cup betting tips on match 2024-02-26 19:30.
After a little blip in the league, Bournemouth will hope a return to FA Cup action can spark a return to life as they look to reach the quarter-finals for just the third time in club history. The Cherries have endured an underwhelming February to say the least, with a 1-0 defeat to Manchester City meaning that they are winless in five games (D3, L2). But with a healthy gap between themselves and the bottom three in the Premier League, there’s little worry of a deep run in this competition having a negative impact on their league position.
Manager Andoni Iraola will therefore surely name a strong side, as he looks to make it a hat-trick of wins against Championship opposition, having already knocked out Queens Park Rangers and Swansea. History suggests they have a strong chance of doing that against high-flying Leicester City too, a team who they boast a six game unbeaten home H2H run against (W4, D2).
That does not bode well for the Foxes, who are at risk of losing three games in succession for the first time since April 2023 after recent defeats to Middlesbrough and Leeds. The latest of those results left manager Enzo Maresca admitting that his side were not “mentally” good enough as they squandered a 1-0 lead at Elland Road, conceding three goals in the last ten minutes in a 3-1 reversal.
Perhaps then, the FA Cup can spell the end of the mini-wobble, as Leicester attempt to repeat their heroics of lifting the trophy in 2020/21. They’ve not reached the quarter-finals since then, but certainly have a proud recent record in the competition, winning five successive clashes against Premier League opposition, as well as eight of their last nine FA Cup outings away from the King Power Stadium (L1).
Key battle: Bournemouth’s Justin Kluivert, who scored in the third round against QPR, has only lost one of the last 13 games in which he’s scored (W9, D3), with seven of his strikes in that time serving as the first of the game. Looking to thwart him may be Leicester’s designated cup goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk, who has a 100% record from five FA Cup ties, keeping two clean sheets in the process.
Hot streak: None of Bournemouth’s last 33 FA Cup ties have finished 0-0, a run dating back to 2008.