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Nottingham Forest vs Man City LIVE commentary: Top-five rivals clash at Wembley for place in FA Cup final
Nottingham Forest take on Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-finals today as the season showpiece at Wembley approaches.
Nuno Espirito Santo's side are well in the hunt for the Champions League and could end the season memorably with a trophy and top European football.
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Meanwhile, for Man City, this is their only hope of winning something.
Pep Guardiola's side are also embroiled in the race to qualify for UEFA's premier competition, and a piece of silverware would bring a positive end to a tough campaign.
Of course, Forest haven't won anything major since 1990, and the chance to end that drought is just one game away.
Crystal Palace beat Aston Villa at Wembley on Saturday and will await the winner of this tie in the FA Cup final on May 17.
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Nottingham Forest vs Man City: Same again?
Forest and Man City have already played twice this season with two very different outcomes.
At the Etihad, it was a bit of a walkover as City ran out 3-0 winners.
At the time, they hadn't won in seven matches in all competitions, so it was a much-needed victory.
However, the return fixture at The City Ground saw Forest produce a magnificent defensive display to seal a 1-0 win.
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In both matches, the away sides offered very little, so with this one being on neutral ground, it will be intriguing to see how it plays out.
But both sets of fans will be hoping for a repeat result from their respective home ties.
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- Nottingham Forest have beaten Man City 1-0 in the Premier League this season, last beating them twice in the same campaign in 1989-90 (2x league, 1x Full Members Cup).
- Manchester City have lost four of their five FA Cup meetings with Nottingham Forest (W1), most recently a 3-0 home loss in the third round in 2008-09.
- This is Nottingham Forest’s first FA Cup semi-final appearance since 1990-91 under Brian Clough, beating West Ham 4-0 at Villa Park before eventually losing to Spurs in the final.
Nottingham Forest vs Man City: Team news
Forest will hope that Ola Aina is fit to return.
The full-back has been outstanding this season but has been missing for the last few games with an unspecified injury.
However, he is expected back in training any day.
There will also be a late check on Jota Silva, who missed the win over Tottenham with a knock.
Hudson-Odoi and Ryan Yates will hope to start having being substitutes for that victory.
For City, Rodri, Erling Haaland Nathan Ake are out.
Ederson and John Stones are closer to returning, but they might not make this one.
Of the two, Ederson is the most likely to play
Elsewhere, expect some rotation, with Phil Foden and Jeremy Doku among those hoping for starts.
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- This is Man City’s seventh consecutive appearance in an FA Cup semi-final, winning three and losing three of the previous six. They’ve won the last two, and are looking to reach the final in three consecutive years for the first time.
- This will be just Nottingham Forest’s second match at Wembley Stadium since its reopening in 2007, previously beating Huddersfield 1-0 in the 2022 Championship play-off final. Meanwhile, this will be Man City’s 28th game at the ‘new’ Wembley (as a neutral venue), with only Chelsea playing there more often (30).
- Manchester City reached the League Cup final in four consecutive seasons between 2017-18 and 2020-21. They could now reach the FA Cup final for a third consecutive year and would be the first side to reach the final of both major domestic trophies three seasons running.
Nottingham Forest vs Man City: What has been said?
Despite having a chance to win the FA Cup, Guardiola feels his team have lacked something this season.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, he said: "We have to be better.
"The body language is a stupid detail but it says a lot about the passion that we had. This season we didn't have it.
"We could not train, we had 13 players every three days. We could not recover with the pace and energy it was necessary. The players have to feel they're not going to play and they couldn't feel it because we didn't have players, we had six, seven, eight injuries most of the time."
"There were other ones [who struggled] but that was the biggest issue because of recovery. I remember many times we were good for 65-70 minutes and after we went down."
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- Nottingham Forest have progressed via penalties in the fourth round, fifth round and the quarter-final of this season’s FA Cup, the first team to have three shootouts in a single campaign in the competition. They also lost on penalties to Newcastle in the EFL Cup, with Chelsea in 2021-22 the only top-flight team to contest five penalty shootouts in a single campaign.
- Since the 2021-22 campaign, Ryan Yates has had a hand in eight FA Cup goals in 13 games for Nottingham Forest (4 goals, 4 assists), five more than any other player. He also scored the winning penalty in the quarter-final shootout against Brighton in March.
- Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espírito Santo could become the second Portuguese manager to reach the FA Cup final after José Mourinho, who beat Manchester United (with Chelsea) in 2007 and lost to Chelsea (with Manchester United) in 2018.
- Since his debut in the FA Cup in January 2016, Man City’s Kevin De Bruyne has been involved in more goals in the competition proper than any other player (28 – 10 goals, 18 assists).
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Nottingham Forest vs Man City: Date and how to follow
This FA Cup semi-final will take place on Sunday, April 27.
Kick-off at Wembley is scheduled for 4:30pm.
talkSPORT will have live coverage from north London, with Adrian Durham serving as your presenter.
Commentary will come from Jim Proudfoot and former Forest and City manager Stuart Pearce.
To tune in to talkSPORT through the website, click HERE for the live stream.
You can also listen via the talkSPORT app, on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.
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talkSPORT.com will also have regular updates in our live football blog.
The match will also be shown on ITV 1 and ITVX.