Hull City’s FA Cup 5th Round replay with Arsenal will be played on Tuesday 8th March with a kick-off of 7pm, as confirmed by the FA.
Hull earned a creditable 0-0 draw last Saturday at the Emirates and a replay will be needed to separate the two sides. Both clubs have a lot of games in the next few weeks so it was difficult to find a date for a replay, however both have agreed on 8th March.
The Tigers, who are top of the Championship by two points after yesterday’s draw against Sheffield Wednesday, made 10 changes for their 0-0 against Arsenal and may do again for the replay. Goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic was Man-of-the-Match last time out and will no doubt return in the replay.
There’s no doubt that Hull’s main priority is gaining promotion back to the Premier League. However, they always give it a good go in the FA Cup and will want to get revenge on Arsenal as they beat them in the final in 2014 and knocked them out last year too.
In an added twist to the scheduling of the replay, it is likely that the Football Association (FA) could be in hot water from UEFA – with a fine expected to be coming their way soon, according the The Daily Mail.
The FA have schedled the game on a Champions League night, meaning that it will clash with that night’s round of Champions League fixtures of games between Real Madrid vs.Roma and Wolfsburg vs. Gent. Even though the FA have moved back the kick-off at the KC Stadium to 7pm, this is in conflict with UEFA directives that state domestic games must end 30 minutes before a Champions League fixture commences.
The last time that this happened, the FA were hit in the pocket by a £42,000 from UEFA and £1m was withheld from a solidarity payment.
