Man City, Liverpool, Crystal Palace, Chelsea into FA Cup semifinals

London, March 21 (IANS): Manchester City face an FA Cup semifinal against Liverpool after both sides won their quarterfinals on Sunday night. City won 4-1 away to Southampton in an entertaining match that was in the balance until just after the hour mark.

Raheem Sterling put City ahead after Kevin de Bruyne’s cross wasn’t dealt with in the 12th minute. It could have been 2-0 when Ilkay Gundogan hit the post, but Southampton recovered after a period of City dominance and levelled in first-half injury time when Aymeric Laporte screwed a low cross into his own goal.

De Bruyne put Pep Guardiola’s side back in front from the penalty spot in the 62nd minute after Gabriel Jesus had been fouled. Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez then assured the win with goals in the 75th and 78th minutes, Xinhua reports.

Diogo Jota poked home the only goal of the game to give Liverpool a hard-fought but deserved 1-0 win away to Nottingham Forest, who had soaked up a lot of pressure before the goal.

The last time Liverpool played Forest in the FA Cup was at the Hillsborough Stadium in 1989, which was the scene of a tragedy in which 97 Liverpool fans lost their lives, and the home side paid homage to the event 33 years ago which was the catalyst for the modernization of the English game.

Crystal Palace eased into the semifinals with a 4-0 win at home to Everton. The away side had the best of the opening stages, but everything changed when Marc Guehi celebrated his England call-up with the 25th minute opener, and the game was virtually over when Jean-Philippe Mateta doubled Palace’s lead before half-time.

Wilfried Zaha and Will Hughes ended the rout with further goals in the 79th and 87th minutes.

Crystal Palace will play Chelsea, who booked their place in the semifinals on Saturday with a relatively comfortable 2-0 win away to Middlesbrough, thanks to first-half goals from Romelu Lukaku and Hakim Ziyech.

Lukaku was left with a simple finish from Mason Mount’s cross, while Ziyech hit a nasty dipping shot to double Chelsea’s lead against a rival that never gave up, but failed to get a shot on target.

In the Premier League, an own goal from Kurt Zouma and two from Son Heung-min saw Tottenham win 3-1 at home to West Ham, who looked tired after their marathon Europa League win against Sevilla on Thursday.

Spurs were 2-0 up by the 24th minute, and although Said Benrahma pulled a goal back from a corner, Son sealed the win with his second goal two minutes from time.

Arsenal recovered from their midweek defeat to Liverpool with a 1-0 at Aston Villa on Saturday, with Bukayo Saka netting the game’s only goal.

Goals from Timothy Castagne, who returned after three months out through injury, and James Maddison gave Leicester a 2-1 home win over Brentford, who netted a late consolation from Yoane Wissa.