Stoke City vs Brighton & Hove Albion

Bet365 Stadium is the venue as Stoke City and Brighton & Hove Albion battle it out for a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

It’s been an outrageous FA Cup start for Stoke City as they followed up a 3-0 demolition of Hartlepool United in a curtain-raising fixture with an equally impressive 3-1 home win over Stevenage. However, consistency has been a problem for the EFL Championship playoff hopefuls, with a 1-0 home loss to Millwall in the build-up to this fixture meaning none of their last six competitive matches have seen a repeat of the same outcome twice in a row (W2, D1, L3). But there’s a piece of history up for grabs as the ‘Potters’ could reach the FA Cup quarter-finals as a non-top-flight side for the first time since 1927/28, while the last time they got this far in the competition was in 2011/12. No strangers to punching above their weight, they’ve won four of their seven cup games against Premier League sides since being relegated (L3).

Meanwhile, more heavily fancied to make it out of this tie, Brighton thrashed Stoke’s fellow second-tier rival Middlesbrough 5-1 to launch their FA Cup campaign before beating Liverpool 2-1 in the last round. Despite experiencing a catastrophic ten-game winless H2H run against Stoke in all competitions (D2, L8), Brighton can draw confidence from progressing from 16 of their last 18 FA Cup ties against teams from lower divisions. But the ‘Seagulls’ have endured a dip in form lately, going from back-to-back top-flight victories to consecutive matches without winning (D1, L1), including a dismal 1-0 home defeat to Fulham last time out. But with their weekend fixture against Newcastle United postponed due to the Magpies’ League Cup duties, Roberto De Zerbi’s men will take the field fresher of the two sides.