{"id":887,"date":"2026-04-06T17:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T17:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=887"},"modified":"2026-04-06T17:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T17:37:11","slug":"leeds-win-west-ham-thriller-classy-cherki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=887","title":{"rendered":"Leeds win West Ham thriller, Classy Cherki"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Our FA Cup Awards honour the best \u2013 and worst \u2013 of this weekend\u2019s quarter-final action, featuring Leeds\u2019 thrilling win at West Ham and Rayan Cherki.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h5><strong>Moment of the Week<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>It\u2019s impossible not to start with the chaos that was <strong>West Ham vs Leeds United<\/strong>. The game looked like a routine win for Leeds, who controlled the contest at the London Stadium, holding a seemingly insurmountable two-goal lead as the game entered stoppage time.<\/p>\n<p>A mammoth 11 minutes from the fourth official changed the mood, and West Ham were lifted. Mateus Fernandes pulled a goal back before Axel Disasi turned in a second to force extra time. Many West Ham fans had already headed for the exits, and several who had done so soon did a U-turn.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"West Ham United v Leeds United AFC | Key Moments | Quarter-final | Emirates FA Cup 2025-26\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ELhx_yYd5Zg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Extra time was no less chaotic. Twice, West Ham had goals disallowed in an end-to-end clash, before the Hammers were forced to bring on Fin Herrick for his debut in goal after Alphonse Areola was injured. The youngster saved the first spot-kick of the shootout and certainly did his bit to distract Leeds, but it was the visitors who held their nerve to reach Wembley.<\/p>\n<p>A brilliant, brilliant FA Cup tie.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Player of the Week<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Manchester City made light work of a lousy Liverpool in a statement win from Pep Guardiola\u2019s side. Erling Haaland\u2019s hat-trick hogged the headlines, but it was <strong>Rayan Cherki<\/strong> who was, arguably, the best player on the pitch.<\/p>\n<p>The Frenchman is a fantastic watch and has been a real addition to English football this season. He taunted Liverpool with moments of close control and evasive footwork, and was involved in almost everything good from the Citizens. Liverpool couldn\u2019t get near him.<\/p>\n<blockquote data-service=\"twitter\" data-category=\"marketing\" data-placeholder-image=\"https:\/\/thefootballfaithful.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/complianz-gdpr-premium-DISABLED\/assets\/images\/placeholders\/twitter-minimal.jpg\" class=\"cmplz-placeholder-element twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Magic in motion &#x1fa84; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3PxBgS0Rba\">pic.twitter.com\/3PxBgS0Rba<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Manchester City (@ManCity) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ManCity\/status\/2040808207371686397?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h5><strong>Goal of the Week<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Stop them if you can.<\/p>\n<p>A fine flowing move from Manchester City took the game away from Liverpool on the stroke of half-time. The <strong>Cherki, Semenyo<\/strong> and <strong>Haaland<\/strong> combination is a serious proposition for teams to deal with.<\/p>\n<blockquote data-service=\"twitter\" data-category=\"marketing\" data-placeholder-image=\"https:\/\/thefootballfaithful.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/complianz-gdpr-premium-DISABLED\/assets\/images\/placeholders\/twitter-minimal.jpg\" class=\"cmplz-placeholder-element twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"in\">Cherki &#x27a1;&#xfe0f; Semenyo &#x27a1;&#xfe0f; Haaland &#x1f3af; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7pB4oc5Lt7\">pic.twitter.com\/7pB4oc5Lt7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Manchester City (@ManCity) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ManCity\/status\/2040749129098256417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h5><strong>Save of the Week<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Mohamed Salah has been a thorn in the side of Manchester City for several seasons, but his final game against the club as a Liverpool player did not go as planned.<\/p>\n<p>An awful afternoon saw a missed penalty as the low-light, but credit <strong>James Trafford<\/strong> for the save. The goalkeeper\u2019s been handed a tough gig at Manchester City this season, but has proven his worth in cup competition.<\/p>\n<blockquote data-service=\"twitter\" data-category=\"marketing\" data-placeholder-image=\"https:\/\/thefootballfaithful.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/complianz-gdpr-premium-DISABLED\/assets\/images\/placeholders\/twitter-minimal.jpg\" class=\"cmplz-placeholder-element twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Penalty saving excellence &#x1f9e4;&#x2728; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kLiTzlmevX\">pic.twitter.com\/kLiTzlmevX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Manchester City (@ManCity) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ManCity\/status\/2040783266102329724?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h5><strong>Stat of the Week<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p><strong>Southampton<\/strong> have won the FA Cup just once in their entire history, back in 1976. At the time, the Saints upset the odds to win the competition as a second-tier team.<\/p>\n<p>Unbeaten in 15 games after a stunning turnaround under Tonda Eckert, Southampton dumped out Premier League leaders Arsenal and have their sights set on a shock cup success again.<\/p>\n<blockquote data-service=\"twitter\" data-category=\"marketing\" data-placeholder-image=\"https:\/\/thefootballfaithful.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/complianz-gdpr-premium-DISABLED\/assets\/images\/placeholders\/twitter-minimal.jpg\" class=\"cmplz-placeholder-element twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">UNBEATEN IN FIFTEEN &#x1f44f; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LIR5g6QMb3\">pic.twitter.com\/LIR5g6QMb3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SouthamptonFC\/status\/2040553372487713197?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 4, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h5><strong>A week to forget for\u2026<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p><strong>Arne Slot. <\/strong>Liverpool fans have a reputation for sticking with under-fire managers, but their exits en masse from the Etihad tells the story of their season so far.<\/p>\n<p>Slot exceeded all expectations to win the Premier League last season, but his team is a shadow of that level now. Their defeat at Manchester City was limp and inexcusable, a 15th of the season in all competitions. The heat is firmly on, ahead of a daunting trip to PSG in midweek.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Read \u2013\u00a0FA Cup draw: Leeds to face Chelsea in first semi-final for 39 years<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>See more \u2013\u00a0Four heroes from the FA Cup quarter-final ties<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Follow the Football Faithful on Social Media:<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FootyFaithful\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thefootballfaithfull\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FootyFaithful_\">Twitter<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCUgN0WQEhxRbfTdlbkEG7zQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">YouTube<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our FA Cup Awards honour the best \u2013 and worst \u2013 of this weekend\u2019s quarter-final<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}