FA Cup: Giantkillers Lincoln slay Burnley, Leicester fed to the Lions at Millwall

February 20 – Any doubts that the FA cup, the world’s oldest and most prestigious domestic knockout competition, has lost its romance were swept away at the weekend when Lincoln City – four divisions below the Premier League – became the first non-league side in 103 years to reach the quarter-finals.

Producing one of the greatest upsets in the history of the competition, the National League side won 1-0 at top-flight Burnley with a last-gasp goal against a side 81 places higher up the English footballing pyramid who had held Premier League leaders Chelsea to a draw only a week ago.

Lincoln are only the third minor league side to beat top-flight opposition in nearly 30 years. “It’s a football miracle for a non-league team to be in the last eight,” said Lincoln’s young manager Danny Cowley whose brother acts as his assistant.

“We are realists. I will never ask the players to do something they’re not capable of. But we thought if we could get the game plan right we could compete.”

Incredibly, Lincoln’s reward will be a glamourous tie against 12-time FA cup winners Arsenal provided Arsene Wenger’s team overcome even greater minnows tonight in a fixture that has captured global interest.

Arsenal, still reeling from their 5-1 Champions League thrashing at the hands of Bayern Munich, travel to Sutton United, the lowest-ranked team left in the FA Cup who are in the same division as Lincoln but in the bottom half of the table.

Meanwhile the pressure is growing on Claudio Ranieri whose Leicester City side, having plummeted into dangerous relegation territory just nine months after becoming the most unlikely of Premier League champions, were also on the end of a massive  FA shock.

Leicester not only lost 1-0 at Millwall, a team two divisions lower, but also against opponents who played most of the second half with 10 men.

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