And there was four…
Smash & Grab (3) 50 – 47 SB Town Baggers (5)
S&G Beat Toughest Opposition Yet
The two winningest teams of the forty battled for a place in the Semi-Finals. S&G picked up Meslier and Coufal off the waiver wire ahead of their Quarter-Final against their opponents and Best-ish rivals SB Town. The Baggies also signed a West Ham defender, Craig Dawson, and a ‘keeper, Dean Henderson, when the transfer window opened. They later added former Golden Boot winner Aguero and 2019 Goal of the Season winner Andros Townsend to their squad.
The Premier League favourites had James Ward-Prowse feature in both Southampton games this gameweek and he was able to put away a penalty in both appearances. His two goals were the only strikes to hit the back of the net for Smash & Grab, but were just enough to help see them past the two-time Cup Winners SB Town. Unfortunately for the Championship side, not only did they narrowly lose this Quarter-Final despite scoring more goals, but suffered a similar fate in the League, losing 53-47 despite outscoring AFC Chester three to one. Their new signing Craig Dawson scored one of the two goals that went past Meslier this weekend (although the ‘keeper didn’t feature in the QF) and his first-half strike complimented goals from their high-scoring midfield duo Fernandes and Gündoğan. However, it was an assist from Rashford, for United’s second, and Cresswell’s pass to Dawson took Smash & Grab through to the Semis to face perennial opponents Bigger than Brolin.
Smash & Grab have shared the Premier League with Bigger than Brolin for the last three seasons and have won all of the last six meetings. They will meet again in the League in Gameweek 30 in a massive League & Cup double-header!
Smash & Grab:
Goals: Ward-Prowse (25′ pen, 32′ pen)
Min: 1062 G: 2 A: 2 YC: 0 RC: 0
SB Town Baggers:
Goals: Fernandes (2′ pen), Dawson (28′), Gundogan (45+3′)
Min: 1075 G: 3 A: 0 YC: 0 RC: 0
Webuiltthis City (11) 41 – 51 Bigger than Brolin (6)
2017 Champions see off League One Favourites
It’s been a rocky few weeks for Web City since they reached the top of League One. Inconsistant performances have hindered their attempts to open up a gap between themselves and second-placed RelicFC. With a view to stabilise their form over the coming weeks, City signed Eric Dier, Fraser Forster and Pascal Groß pre-match. Bigger than Brolin have been enjoying a purple patch of late, winning their last six in both competitions and building a cushion between themselves and fifth place in the Prem. Going into their second QF appearance, BtB signed Declan Rice, Kevin Phillips, Ben White and Stuart Armstrong.
Another team looking to another taste of Cup Final glory are Bigger than Brolin. They are also chasing down the money in the Premier League and are in good form to do both. The Man of the Match was Big Brol’s Bale who scored twelve points after netting a brace away at Selhurst Park, followed closely behind by new-signing Stuart Armstrong (10FPts) who had an assist in both of his games, and also came close to scoring in both too. Web City put in a similar amount of time on the pitch but only Gündoğan came back with a decent return from his 180 minutes. Fraser Forster proved himself with a clean sheet against relegation-bound Sheffield United, but didn’t appear in the 5-2 drubbing by City. Lindelof and Wan-Bissaka also kept clean sheets for Web City this week, while Johnstone and Bartley performed the same feat for BtB.
Bigger than Brolin progress but face a difficult tie against Premier League rivals Smash & Grab in the Semi-Finals. The last time Big Brol reached the Semis they went on to win the tournament and the last time they met Smash & Grab outside of the Premier League they won soundly, 57-42 in the 2018 Champions League.
Webuiltthis City:
Goal: Gundogan (45+3‘)
Min: 1079 G: 1 A: 0 YC: 1 RC: 0
Bigger than Brolin:
Goals: Bale (25′, 49′)
Min: 1082 G: 2 A: 2 YC: 2 RC: 0
BattleVAR Galáctico (24) 27 – 55 Gloopy Yarbles (6)
Yarbles Beat Galácticos to Reach First Cup Semi-Final
BattleVAR have had a tough season so far. This week they joined the group of teams who have had 1000FPts scored against them in League competition, and are locked in a relegation battle with Harambe Hotspur. Gloopy Yarbles are currently fighting in a different battle, they have lost just one game in the last seven and lead the race for League One’s third promotion place. Both teams made one change before this match. BattleVAR signed Vladimir Coufal to replace Hector Bellerin and Gloopy swapped Ola Aina for Serge Aurier.
West Ham did their bit for Bat Gal away at Leeds, Coufal kept a clean sheet and Lingard scored, albeit after his penalty was initially saved. However despite a good win for the Hammers, the Galácticos crumbled against the midfield trio of Fernandes, Foden and Havertz which scored a combined 29 FPts. Havertz (9 FPts), James (6 FPts) and El Mohamady (6 FPts) all came off the bench to add 21 FPts to the final score whilst Areola’s unexpected clean sheet away at Anfield wasn’t utilised.
Gloopy Yarbles will play Vanishing Spray FC in the next round in the first meeting between the two sides. They will go into that game confident in their abililty to hit high scores in this tournament – they had the top score in the Quarter-Finals and the second-best score in the Second Round (The El Dude Brothers scored 61 FPts in a replay). That said though, Vanishing Spray only scored one point less in their QF against Route 57 this weekend…
BattleVAR Galáctico:
Goal: Lingard (21′)
Min: 888 G: 1 A: 0 YC: 1 RC: 0 PKM: 1
Gloopy Yarbles:
Goal: Fernandes (2′ pen)
Min: 909 G: 1 A: 5 YC: 0 RC: 0
Vanishing Spray FC (22) 54 – 46 Route 57 FC (2)
Spray Knock Out Another Top Ten Team
It looks like Spray and R57 might be playing each other next season. Both are winning their respective battles and both are enjoying healthy win streaks. So this, the first meeting between the two sides, could be a sign of things to come. Before the Saturday kick-off, Redmond joined Route 57 as they made a stab at reaching the Final Four whilst Saiss, Bednarek, Darlow, Kovacic and Pepe came into the squad for Spray.
If this match was indeed a sign of things to come, we could have a few more 100-point games to look forward to. Six goals and five defensive clean sheets between the sides made this the highest-scoring game of the round, with Kane (16 FPts) and Mahrez (15 FPts) contributing nearly a third of the total between them. Unfortunately for the Championship side, only Martinez and Konza could substantially add to Kane’s high-score of the round, plenty of twos and threes littered the rest of the Route 57 scoresheet. At the other end, more goals for Fernandes and Lingard plus clean sheets for Wan-Bissaka and new signings Saiss & Bednarek elevated Spray over the 50-point mark and into their first Cup Semi-Final.
Vanishing Spray will also be entitled to have high expectations for the next round. They were top-scorers in the First Round and, as mentioned above, scored just one point less than Gloopy Yarbles in this. Their talisman Bruno Fernandes however, will probably feature for both teams, meaning that the other ten men will have to step up on both sides.
Vanishing Spray FC:
Goals: Fernandes (2′ pen), Lingard (21′), Mahrez (40′, 55′)
Min: 997 G: 4 A: 1 YC: 1 RC: 0 PKM: 1
Route 57 FC:
Goals: Kane (52′, 76′)
Min: 986 G: 2 A: 2 YC: 0 RC: 0
The Semi-Finals
The next round will be played in Gameweek 30 and kicks off Saturday 3rd April. It will feature third-placed Leicester taking on league leaders Manchester City. The last time they met, Leicester beat City 5-2 at the Etihad. Wolves will host a West Ham side that beat them 4-0 in September and West Brom return to Stamford Bridge six months after squandering a 3-0 half-time lead over The Blues to draw 3-3.
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