Preview: Swans v Owls
Swansea City will look to bounce back from defeat at Brighton when they take on Sheffield Wednesday at the Liberty Stadium tonight (8.05pm).
The Swans and the Owls do battle in an Emirates FA Cup fifth-round replay having drawn the original tie 0-0 at Hillsborough 10 days ago.
The prize on offer is a home quarter-final against either Tottenham Hotspur or Rochdale, who play in another replay at Wembley tomorrow night.
Reaching the last eight would be quite an achievement for Carlos Carvalhal’s team, for the Swans have not got that far in the competition since way back in 1963-64.
But Carvalhal has made it quite clear throughout this cup run that the Premier League is very much the priority.
As a result, he is once again likely to make a number of changes this evening.
Carvalhal stressed after Saturday’s grim defeat at Brighton that his team would definitely be better when they return to top-flight action against West Ham at the weekend.
But after the Swans’ 10-game unbeaten sequence came to a shuddering halt, the Portuguese will be keen to get back on track against his former club tonight.
Team news
The Swans will once again be without club skipper Angel Rangel, Renato Sanches, Leroy Fer and Wilfried Bony through injury, while January signings Andy King and Andre Ayew are both cup-tied.
But there is a chance that Leon Britton could play some part for the first time since October having had an injection in his pelvis.
Wednesday have a host of injury issues, with Ross Wallace joining a lengthy casualty list since the original tie.
Keiren Westwood, Tom Lees, Joost van Aken, Sam Hutchinson, Barry Bannan, Kieran Lee, Steven Fletcher, Gary Hooper, Fernando Forestieri and Marco Matias all have problems.
On top of that lot, Jordan Thorniley, Jack Stobbs and the in-form Sean Clare are cup-tied.
What they said
Carlos Carvalhal: ““We will not take any risks with any players who have slight problems, but we will try to pick the best XI we have available to win a difficult game."
Owls boss Jos Luhukay: “We want so much to go to the next round, but this is a hard game. We must have a lot of passion. They are the favourites but we will go there to make the best game we can.”
Last six meetings
17.2.18 Sheffield Wednesday 0 Swans 0
13.3.10 Swans 0 Sheffield Wednesday 0
19.12.09 Sheffield Wednesday 0 Swans 2
21.3.09 Sheffield Wednesday 0 Swans 0
30.8.08 Swans 1 Sheffield Wednesday 1
14.1.84 Sheffield Wednesday 6 Swans 1
Pre-match stats
6 – The Swans will look to make it six straight home wins in all competitions tonight. The last time they managed such a feat was under Roberto Martinez in 2007.
2 – Wednesday have won only two of their last 17 away games in all competitions.
* Tickets are still available for our Emirates FA Cup replay against Sheffield Wednesday. Get your tickets online HERE, or call the ticket office at 01792 616400.
We also have hospitality available. Call our dedicated team on 01792 616628 for more information.
