This Saturday the 140th FA Cup Final will be held at Wembley Stadium between Chelsea Football Club and Leicester City Football Club and that matters. FA Cup matches are shown live by TV broadcasters BT Sport and BBC One and with match highlights available free on BBC Sport with Match of the Day. Need an FA Cup VPN?
The FA Cup matters. It may well have lost some of it’s luster with the expansion of the Champions League and the battle for top four Premier League finishes and certain managers, looking at you Jurgen Klopp, deciding to play reserve teams in the FA Cup because they don’t want the extra games as part of their late season schedule, but it’s still one of the highlights of the English football calendar. It has to be. History demands that it is. Fun Fact: FA Cup VPN is one of the most searched terms on Google.
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While League football has changed in format due to the formation of the Premier League, and European football has changed massively with the Champions League and Europa League replacing the European Cup and UEFA Cup while the Cup Winners Cup was abolished, the FA Cup remains the same classic version of itself. The version we grew up loving. From 3rd round Saturday when the top flight teams entered the fray through to the FA Cup as a ceremonial event to end the English football season.
⚽ Chelsea vs Leicester City
📅 Saturday 15 May 2021
⏰ 1715 UK Kick-Off
🖥️ BBC Sport Free Live Streaming
This game is not the final game of the season obviously, but it should be. The decision to move the cup final to an earlier slot came a few years ago, and has never seemed correct. The English season should begin with the Community Shield and end with the FA Cup Final. It’s what works, it creates a definitive “season”. There are other small grips to be had with the way certain changes have been made in the FA Cup. The semi-finals being played at Wembley rather than at neutral club venues. FA Cup semi-finals at Villa Park, Old Trafford, Highbury and others hold a proper place in the annals of English football, and they make more sense. In the Emirates, the London Stadium and the Tottenham stadium there are three fantastic venues in London that could host an all-Southern semi-final. Old Trafford, The Etihad and Anfield are perfect for all-Northern semi-final. Villa Park is ideally situated for a North vs South meeting. Remember Manchester United vs Arsenal in 1999? Ryan Giggs scoring arguably the greatest goal in the history of FA Cup semi-finals? Villa Park. The King Power stadium could work either. Semi-finals being at Wembley is all about money, but they don’t feel right. Wembley should be a showcase event. The Final. Not semi-finals. Do the right thing, FA. Move the semi-finals back to neutral club venues.
Eight-time FA Cup winners Chelsea have gotten very used to have being in the FA Cup final, winning seven in the last 25 years after claiming the trophy just once in the first 92 years of their existence. They have also three finals in that time. In the past five years, they have taken part in three finals, winning 1-0 against Manchester in 2018 after missing out on a League and Cup double in 2017 when they lost 2-1 to Arsenal. Arsenal would repeat the trick and defeat Chelsea last season by the same scoreline. Pre-Abramovich, Chelsea took the cups seriously because they weren’t in a position to challenge for the title. Under Abramovich they have taken the cups seriously because they have become serial winners and understand the importance of silverware, to fans, players, managers, history and legacy.
Chelsea have benefitted from a favourable path to the final, having been drawn against three teams from lower leagues in Morecambe, Luton Town and Barnsley, before facing the dreadful Sheffield United. It also helped that three of those four games were at home. They did overcome Manchester City in the semi-final, a victory which ended City’s hopes of winning an unprecedented quadruple. It’s also served as an early dress rehearsal for this season’s Champions League final.
Mateo Kovacic, Andreas Christensen and N’Golo Kante are all doubts ahead of the game, so Thomas Tuchel may have to patch his team together a little bit if all three fail to prove their fitness ahead of Saturday.
Leicester have played in four FA Cup final, and lost them all. The suffered defeats in 1949, 1961, 1962 and 1969 to Wolves, Tottenham, Manchester United and Manchester City respectively. In the 52 years since their last final appearance they have only made it to the semi-finals stage on three different occasions. This season was the first time since 1982 that they had reached the final four. The FA Cup is a competition in which they just haven’t experienced much success. Four finals, four semi-finals and nine quarter finals are all they have to show for 118 entries into the competition. Brendan Rodgers will be looking to bring the cup to Leicester for the first time, a trophy that would mean the world to the club, the city and the fanbase.
Like Chelsea, Leicester had a favourable run in the FA Cup though they would likely argue that theirs has been tougher than Chelsea’s. They defeat Championship sides Stoke City and Brentford away from home, before beating Premier League opposition Brighton and Manchester United at home. They defeated Southampton in a tight semi-final that could have gone either way.
James Justin, Harvey Barnes and Wes Morgan are all ruled, but Brendan Rodgers could be facing a further blow if Jonny Evans fails to recover from the heel injury suffered in the warm up before Leicester’s defeat to Newcastle.
These sides will face each other in the Premier League just four days after this game, in their first meeting of the season Leicester ran out 2-0 winners with goals from Wilf Ndidi and James Maddison. That was the last league game Chelsea played under Frank Lampard, who was fired days later after the Chelsea defeated Luton in the FA Cup 4th round. If Rodgers was taking on Lampard this Saturday, you would have to give the advantage to Leicester, but Thomas Tuchel is a totally different level of manager. While Rodgers has had success at Swansea, winning the playoffs, and at Celtic where he won back to back trebles and a third league cup, he is yet to win a major honour in a top five league. Tuchel had cup success with Borussia Dortmund and PSG, as well as winning back to back titles with PSG. He’s also done it at the highest level of European competition, an area in which Rodgers has a terrible record. A tactical battle between the two favours Tuchel but Leicester’s best available 11 is more than a match for Chelsea’s and makes this one of the most exciting FA Cups finals in recent years.
These are just some of the games available to you in the FA Cup this weekend. With so many games to choose from, the worry is wasting time on the wrong game. We’ll try and guide you in the right direction so that all you need to do is sit back, turn on your Liberty Shield VPN, settle in, and enjoy the games.
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How to watch every FA Cup match from anywhere…
FA Cup VPN matches for the 2020/21 season will be streamed live between BT Sport and the BBC Sport website, as well as their respective apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, Smart TV, Now TV, FireTV etc.
But these streaming services are not available to everyone, for example when you load BT Sport in the USA, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, Australia, Dubai, Canada etc. you will get an error message.
Sorry, this video is not available in your country.
This is basically because their streaming services are geoblocked based on the IP address being used to access it. You must be a UK domestic web user to access BT Sport and BBC Sport live tv streaming.
- Get a UK IP address.
- If you want to watch on your Windows PC, Mac, FireTV, iPhone, iPad or Android then you can get a UK Proxy or VPN Apps from Liberty Shield, FREE for 48 hours and then from only £8.99 per month..
- Prefer to watch on supported media streaming devices like Now TV, Smart TVs, Apple TV, Xbox, PS4, Roku etc? You’ll need a UK configured VPN Router setup as British, available from only £9.99 with Worldwide Shipping available.
How can I watch BT Sport FA Cup VPN 20/21 matches live?
As well as the FA Cup VPN, BT Sport has the rights to just over 50 Premier League fixtures during the 2020/21 campaign, and will also carry coverage of the UEFA Champions’ League and Europa League until 2024. Subscribers can watch BT Sport on their computers as well as their various apps on connected devices. They do offer a Monthly Pass with no contract, which will give customers access to the BT Sport mobile app. BT Sport Box Office will no longer show the matches via the now scrapped pay-per-view offering, but is it too late and have customers already moved towards illegal streams and IPTV providers?
Remember that BT Sport also features coverage from the Bundesliga, and holds rights to Moto GP, UFC and WWE coverage as well. After a long delay the BT Sport app is now available on several models of Smart TV as well as Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices.
How can I watch BBC Sport FA Cup VPN 20/21 matches live?
With Premier League Pay-Per-View now scrapped, the BBC gets their live action once again through their FA Cup rights. They also offer free FA Cup and Premier League VPN 20/21 highlights, with Match of the Day and Match of the Day 2, available live when screened on the BBC Sport website, and also on catchup with BBC iPlayer.
Furthermore; BT Sport and BBC Sport aren’t the only geographically-censored streaming services a VPN or Proxy will allow you to access. Other UK services like Sky Sports, Now TV, BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime, ITV Hub, All 4 and BritBox are available. Plus with the option to switch to our USA service whenever you like, you can access Hulu, HBO GO, Netflix and Pandora. Essentially you can access international content from virtually anywhere!
