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13 min There’s the proof. Adama goes on a barnstorming run from the right and finds Bowen, who fizzes a low shot from the left side of the area. Lucas Perri gets down smartly to his left to push it away.
I forgot to say that Bowen has started on the left with Adama on the right.
11 min Leeds are dominating possession – 66 per cent the last time I checked – though a Nuno Espirito Santo teams are often most dangerous when they don’t have the ball.
Updated at 11.44 EDT
7 min That Lucas Perri save looks better every time you see it. The reaction time was almost non-existent.
Share6 min: Brilliant save by Lucas Perri!
Bowen gets away on the left side of the area and slides a low cross that is poked towards goal by Castellanos, four yards out. Lucas Perri gets down to his left to make an outstanding reaction save.
Updated at 11.39 EDT
3 min Leeds have made a flying start. Areola dithers in possession and is dangerously close to being sacked by Okafor.
Share2 min: Fine save by Areola!
A long throw from Ampadu is only partially cleared. Okafor collects on the edge of the area and shapes a curling shot towards the far corner, forcing Areola to dive low to his left and fingertip the ball round the post. That’s a cracking save, especially so early in the game.
2 min “Any news on why Callum Wilson isn’t in the West Ham squad?” asks Ian Sargeant.
Fraid not.
1 min West Ham kick off from left to right as we watch. You’ll be pleased to hear that national treasure Danny Dyer is in attendance at the London Stadium.
“If he organisers are trying to recapture some of the long-faded ‘magic of the cup’, they’ll need to turn the pitch at Wembley into a quagmire for any potential meeting of Chelsea and Leeds,” writes Justin Kavanagh. “The 1970 FA Cup final was famously played the day after the Horse of the Year Show, and looked more suited to WWI trench warfare than a football match, even one in the 70s. May I suggest that England’s national stadium offer to host Ireland’s National Ploughing Championships on the same week?”
Nuno Espirito Santo’s pre-match thoughts
double quotation markUnfortunately we had some issues during the international break – we have some players who are not available or still recovering – but we are positive. At this stage of the season all the players are important.
It’s a big game for all of us, for our fans. We are positive – the players want to play the game.
Plenty going on elsewhere today, including a mighty shock in the Women’s FA Cup and another twist in the Scottish title race.
Pre-match quiz
Daniel Farke’s pre-match thoughts
double quotation markAt this stage of the season it’s never healthy for a group if you have three weeks without a competitive game. We had some players in action during the international break so it makes sense to rest all the others [who haven’t been playing].
It’s more than two decades since Leeds were in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup so we take this game very seriously.
[On Leeds’ failure to score in four of the last five games] For a newly promoted we have scored a lot of goals overall. We’ve also had three clean sheets in a row which is also important to me. During a long season it’s normal to have a period when you score goal after goal and sometimes you are struggling a bit.
“If ‘both teams could arguably do without this game’, then the FA Cup has fallen in importance even more than I thought,” writes Gary Stover. “Would the fans like to see a Leeds-Chelsea rematch at Wembley even if only a semi-final? Would the Southampton followers rather finish sixth in the Championship or go back to a final at Wembley? Hopefully the players of all five teams left will simply try to do what they do best and win whatever game is before them. I actually think that’s what will happen.”
Why Football Sucks in ‘26.
ShareTeam news
Both managers have picked but not full-strength XIs, with five changes for West Ham and three for Leeds.
West Ham bring in Alphonse Areola, Kyle Walker-Peters, Max Kilman, Soungoutou Magassa and Adama Traore for Mads Hermansen, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Kostas Mavropanos, Tomas Soucek and Pablo.
Lucas Perri, Ao Tanaka and Noah Okafor start for Leeds in place of Karl Darlow, Brendon Aaronson and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
West Ham (4-2-3-1) Areola; Walker-Peters, Kilman, Disasi, Diouf; Magassa, Potts; Bowen, Fernandes, Traore; Castellanos.
Subs: Herrick, Pablo, Lamadrid, Soucek, Scarles, Kante, Golambeckis, Mayers, Ajala.
Leeds United (3-4-1-2) Lucas Perri; Rodon, Bijol, Struijk; Bogle, Ampadu, Stach, Justin; Tanaka; Okafor, Nmecha.
Subs: Darlow, Byram, Bornauw, Longstaff, Gruev, Aaronson, Gnonto, Piroe, Calvert-Lewin.
Referee Craig Pawson.
Updated at 11.15 EDT
Louise Taylor
As Leeds travel to West Ham for an FA Cup quarter-final both teams could arguably do without, one thing is not in doubt: Daniel Farke knows how to read a balance sheet. As the holder of an MA in economics and a diploma in sporting directorship, the Leeds manager needs no reminders that, financially, avoiding relegation is infinitely more important than trying to win the FA Cup. “The Premier League’s our bread and butter,” he said on Thursday . “It’s our priority.”
There is, though, another side to Farke. Away from the training pitches at Thorp Arch, one of the German’s preferred ways of switching off is to spend hours reading on his sofa, transported to different worlds through his love of literary fiction. His favourite novels include Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Given Farke fully appreciates the best managers are, in a different context, similarly expert storytellers, can he resist pursuing a plot line that may just conclude with a survival and Cup glory double? Achieve that and the Elland Road hierarchy would find it very hard to resist furnishing the 49-year-old with the new contract he craves.
SharePreamble
And then there were five. Manchester City, Chelsea and Southampton are through to the FA Cup semi-final; either West Ham or Leeds will join them this evening.
There’s been a slightly strange build up to this game, with the focus as much on the Premier League – both teams are in a relegation battle and will meet on the last day of the season – as the FA Cup.
When the game starts, that should all go out the window. The historical context makes this a seriously big game. West Ham haven’t played in an FA Cup semi-final since 2006, Leeds since 1987. In that context, this match is kind of a big deal.
Kick off 4.30pm.