BC26 Quarter-Final Results

Quarter-Final #1

Beedle’s Boys 77 – 55½ Mighty Fine

League Two’s runaway leaders topscored in the BFFA again this weekend (for an amazing fifth time this season!) and thus were unstoppable in the Cup. Nottingham Forest’s equally amazing 5-0 win over Brentford gifted The Boys an 8½ for Milenkovic, 11½ for Aina and 13½ for Igor Jesus. The latter was almost outshone by Jarrod Bowen (13 FPts) but few others challenged the KO.

As predicted, both teams employed their Bruno Fernandes (8½). Neco Williams faced his old club (ex-Beedle’s Boys) and produced 7½. The other ex-Boy, Tyrick Mitchell, was wisely left on the MF bench and only offered a half-point. Mighty Fine can now concentrate solely on regaining Third Place in the Premier League, while Beedle’s Boys are still campaigning on three fronts – the League, the Cup, and the Best-ish trophy. That said, they could put the League race to bed in the next week or two, and the matchpoints will continue to come their way regardless of results, meaning that the Cup would be their primary focus for the next four weeks. With such a powerful squad, they will be very difficult to face the weeks to come.

Quarter-Final #2

Sporting Thrillhaus 48½ – 50 Sporting Wicker Park

Well this GW34 Sporting Derby was a lot closer than their GW33 scores indicated, and the win could have gone to the other Sporting Club de Futbol, had they set their subs. With both teams hampered by the reduced gameweek, it was all hands to the pump. Wicker Park’s 10 men (missing Cunha, unavailable due to injury) hit a half-century with double figs from Matz Sels, Mac Allister and Chris Wood. Thrillhaus had no such high scores, but the small deficit in scores shows that their squad had enough to match their Championship opponents.

Virgil van Dijk did indeed play for both sides, but only returned 2½ anyway. Mateta (ex-Wicker Park, now Thrillhaus) also failed to impress (3½ FPts). However, it was an ex-Thrillhaus player – Alexis Mac Allister – that did the business for SWP. Either of Thrillhaus’ two substitutes could’ve changed the outcome of the tie; nine-man Thrillhaus left Joao Gomes (4 FPts) and Kevin Schade (1½) on the bench, unprepared for action. Had Gomes been set to replace DCL, Thrillhaus would’ve been through to face the current Best-ish team; had Schade stepped up, we would have been enjoying a replay next weekend.

Beedle’s Boys and Sporting Wicker Park will meet for the first time in the GW36 Semi-Finals

Quarter-Final #3

Beyer Neverleusen 60 – 41½ Team Zizou

QF3 wasn’t the closest game of the four, as someone predicted, as experience won through against the rookie challengers. Neverleusen, from the same dynasty that went all the way in 2017 and 2021, had more than enough quality in Bowen, Hincapie and Martinez. That said, this Quarter-FInal finished 0-0 on goals scored and the tie was settled on all-round better performances by the volunteer side. More assists (3-1), more KP (11-4), more TkW (10-3), more Int’s (12-4), more saves (5-3) and more minutes on the field made it a well-earned victory from all positions.

But it wasn’t that Zizou didn’t try, but they were frustrated throughout the weekend. The Arsenal clean sheet gave Raya and Saliba 10 + 8 FPts, but Rice’s 1½ let them down; Ismaila Sarr had two shots on target, but also appeared for Beyer; Tonali also had a shot on target, but the aforementioned Arsenal clean sheet kept his score low, Gravenberch had been getting more time recently, but was only allowed 11 minutes against Palace. Overall, Beyer were the stronger team across the pitch and fully deserve their place in the final four. With their 22nd knockout and other results going their way, Neverleusen’s manager has now become the winningest team owner in BFFA Cup history.

Quarter-Final #4

Smash & Grab 53 – 53½ Preliminary Version

It was the shared players that scored the majority of the points in this tie – Igor Jesus (13½ FPts) and Casemiro (12) were both featured twice here. Ola Aina also hit double-figures for the Premier League side, but what could have been a clear victory for S&G turned out to be an agonising half-point loss. Almost all of Aina’s 11-point gameweek from Forest’s 5-0 win were undone by Danny Ballard’s negative returns from the same game. A -5 for the once-lauded Ballard, coupled with another big reduction from ‘keeper Henderson (-4) crippled the 2019 champions, and gave Preliminary Version a ticket to their first BFFA Cup Semi-Final.

It might be harsh to blame the knockout on the sub-zero scorers; they’re easy targets. It’s probably not Henderson’s fault that the referee added 7 minutes of injury time just long enough for Wirtz to score a superfluous 96th-minute goal. Perhaps it would be fairer, if not kinder, to sing the praises of the difference-makers. A rare and much-needed clean sheet for Micky van de Ven boosted the new Championship leaders, and was bettered by Gabriel’s 8½ for the new (albeit long-time) Premier League leaders Arsenal. But us journo’s also like the mundane and the ridiculous. Why not attribute the win to Pickford’s single save for the Blue Gloves of Prelim (1 FPt), or Wilson’s midfield clean sheet point, or Strand Larsen’s 20-minute attribute-less appearance for Palace?

Beyer Neverleusen and Preliminary Version will meet for the first time in the GW36 Semi-Finals