Nottingham Forest vs Manchester City prediction, H2H and probable lineups - April 27, 2025
The second FA Cup semi-final will be played on Sunday at Wembley Stadium, where Nottingham Forest will face Manchester City. I propose a bet on the outcome of this clash with good chances of success.
Match preview
Nottingham Forest has lifted the FA Cup twice, the last time being back in 1959. Since then, the team's fans have only witnessed one final, and that was a quarter of a century ago. In the current competition, Nuno Espírito Santo's men are advancing, to say the least, not without adventures: beyond the opening victory over Luton (2-0), all other rounds went through the nerve-wracking penalty lottery.
Nevertheless, the "Tricky Trees" showed composure, knocking out both Ipswich and Brighton from the spot, which is particularly noteworthy as both opponents are Premier League sides. It's worth mentioning that Nottingham has not lost in regular time in 8 of their last 9 matches in this tournament, registering one victory and seven draws in regular time.
Manchester City, on their way to the FA Cup semi-finals, have already faced worthy opposition — in the quarter-finals, Guardiola's team snatched a victory from Bournemouth away, securing a modest but hard-fought 2-1. Before that, the "Citizens" faced much less formidable teams — one of the Championship's underdogs, as well as representatives from League 1 and League 2, which City dispatched in their usual dominant manner.
If the Mancunians get past Nottingham, they will secure their third consecutive appearance in the tournament's final: in 2023, they lost to derby rivals United, and a year earlier, they claimed the trophy — for the seventh time in their history. The team boasts an almost perfect record in the FA Cup — 15 wins in their last 16 matches in the competition.
Probable lineups
- Nottingham Forest: Matz Sels – Ola Aina, Murillo, Neco Williams, Nikola Milenkovic – Danilo dos Santos de Oliveira, Ryan Yates – Morgan Gibbs-White, Nicolas Dominguez, Elliot Anderson – Taiwo Awoniyi
- Manchester City: Ederson – Joško Gvardiol, Abdukhodir Khusanov, Matheus Nunes, Ruben Dias – Bernardo Silva, Mateo Kovacic – Phil Foden, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva – Erling Haaland
Match facts and head-to-head
- This season, the teams exchanged home victories — the "Tricky Trees" won 1-0 and "City" 3-0
- The "Over 2.5 goals" bet hit in only one of the five matches
- The "Both teams to score" option hit in one of the five encounters
Prediction
Bookmakers give a slight edge to the visitors, evaluating Manchester City's victory with odds of around 1.76. We believe the "Tricky Trees" can put up a fight against the favorite, and it's worth taking "Nottingham Forest to win with a handicap (+1.0)" at odds of 1.63.
