“No fluke”—problems with Alan Shearer Man United is forewarned by Coventry City ahead of the FA Cup semifinal.

Coventry City were one of many surprises across a dramatic weekend of FA Cup quarter-final action.

Even though the team had recently won titles against Watford and Rotherham United going into Saturday’s match away to Gary O’Neil’s Wolves, few could have predicted the dominance that Mark Robins’ team displayed over the course of a thrilling one-hour football match that started early at Molineux.

Coventry City’s FA Cup quarter-final success

The Premier League team, which had twice as many shots on goal as their opponents, was full value for their victory in the Black Country, even though they entered the last-eight match with a somewhat depleted squad due to injuries that included star player Pedro Neto. These figures were brought to light in a remarkable second half, when City produced 17 shots on goal and took the lead thanks to Ellis Simms, who kept up his excellent recent goal-scoring record. But Wolves turned the game on its head late on through goals from Rayan Ait-Nouri and Hugo Bueno, and the home crowd began chanting about a return to Wembley. It looked like the second-tier team would pay a heavy price for squandering so many guilt-edged chances. But no one could have predicted what would happen next. In the 97th minute, Haji Wright, the calmest player at Molineux, slotted past Sa with nearly the last kick of a thrilling match to send the Sky Blues back to the national stadium for the second time in ten months. Simms had equalized with a close-range header a minute earlier.

Sakamoto has enjoyed a great first season at the Coventry Building Society Arena, but he may find it hard to get into the starting lineup next term.

“Really impressed…” – BBC pundit reacts to Coventry City performance

Many, including BBC Sport pundit Alan Shearer, the Premier League’s all-time record goalscorer, shared their opinions on Coventry’s performance on social media after the full-time whistle.

Shearer praised the Sky Blues’ performance and responded to the semi-final draw, in which they will play Manchester United in just over a month, while appearing on the Rest Is Football podcast with Gary Lineker, whose beloved Leicester were defeated 4-2 by Chelsea on Sunday, and Micah Richards.

“The odds are probably in favour of another all-Manchester final – the first of which came just under a year ago,” Lineker claimed.

Although in somewhat of an agreement with his colleague, Shearer was still quick to reference Coventry’s exploits despite being the lowest-ranked side left in the prestigious competition.

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Shearer began. “You can imagine (the other teams) are sat there thinking “we all want Coventry”, which is understandable.”

“But, Manchester United got them. It’s not going to be easy for them, by the way. I was really impressed with Coventry,” he continued.

“Mark Robins is doing an unbelievable job there. The way they fought back against Wolves was really, really impressive and it was no fluke. They deserved it.”

Shearer concluded: “They were brilliant, but it’s understandable everybody wanted them in the semi-final.”

Coventry City’s chances of winning the FA Cup

Considering the three teams who are still in the final four, Coventry would need to put in a tremendous amount of work just to make it to the final, let alone win the tournament.

The only other occasion the Sky Blues have advanced this far in the competition was in 1987, when they defeated Leeds United at Hillsborough and went on to defeat Tottenham Hotspur 3-2 in the Wembley final.

It is critical that Robins and his team shift their emphasis right away after the forthcoming international break because they have five vital Championship games left in their quest for a play-off spot and possibly another trip to the capital.

But what they did at Molineux will give them all the confidence they need for the rest of the season, and especially for when they meet the 12-time FA Cup champions during the weekend of April 20–21.

GET MORE NEWS HERE