Bournemouth vs Leicester Prediction: Cherries to find comfort in the cup

After a tough run of results in the Premier League, AFC Bournemouth make a welcome return to FA Cup action on Tuesday night (KO, 19:30), as they host Leicester City in the fifth-round.

The Cherries haven’t emerged victorious from any of their six league games in 2024, and their winless run now stretches to seven in that competition, but they’ve beaten two Championship sides – QPR and Swansea City – in the FA Cup and hit eight goals across those two games.

A much tougher test awaits them this time around, though, with Leicester having stormed the second-tier this season, but the league leaders have lost their last two against Middlesbrough and Leeds United.

Team News

Bournemouth made a decent fist of it on the weekend but ultimately came away from the Vitality Stadium with nothing to show for their efforts against Manchester City. Head coach Andoni Iraola must now be tempted to make a few changes to his side, partly to freshen the XI up, and also to utilise the strong squad he now boasts on the south coast.

Among those expecting starts will be Luis Sinisterra, Alex Scott and Enes Unal, with the latter looking for his full debut after three substitute appearances since joining in January.

Justin Kluivert, Antoine Semenyo and Marcus Tavernier are all at risk of making way for the trio, but the likes of Dominic Solanke, Marcos Senesi, Ilya Zabarnyi and goalkeeper Neto should keep their spots with the quarter-finals in sight.

Max Aarons, Tyler Adams, Ryan Fredericks and James Hill remain on the injury list, but Philip Billing is back from suspension.

Leicester are still without Wilfred Ndidi while Jamie Vardy remains a doubt after missing Friday night’s 3-1 defeat at Leeds.

Jakub Stolarczyk is expected to start in goal after playing the last two rounds while Conor Coady, Callum Doyle, Marc Albrighton, Yunus Akgun and Dennis Praet are all likely to return to the starting XI after beginning the Foxes’ 3-0 victory over Birmingham City in the fourth-round.

Match Odds

The home side are 8/11 to win and advance to the next round of the FA Cup, with a victory for the visitors priced at 7/2. The draw, which would send the tie to a replay at the King Power Stadium, is 3/1.

Both teams to score is 8/13 and it’s 6/4 for over 3.5 goals, which has landed in two of Bournemouth’s last three games.

Bournemouth to win and both teams to score – Yes @ 21/10

With Bournemouth at home and eight points clear of the Premier League relegation zone, plus Leicester’s main objective being promotion from the Championship, I expect the Cherries to come out on top in this tie and avoid the need for a replay.

Iraola has a wealth of talent at his disposal, particularly in attacking areas, and they’ve scored at least twice in six home games this season.

Leicester, meanwhile, have shipped multiple goals in three of their last five away outings, losing two of them.

They’ve only failed to score in one away match though, and that was back in November as they fell to a 1-0 defeat at Middlesbrough.

Bournemouth have only kept one clean sheet this calendar year and conceded twice to QPR at the start of January, so the Foxes should fancy their chances of scoring on the south coast, but any goal should be in vain.

Luis Sinisterra to score anytime @ 11/5

The Colombian hasn’t started Bournemouth’s last two games but after starting in the last round against Swansea and registering two goal contributions – a goal and assist – will expect to return to the first XI on Tuesday.

Sinisterra already has a goal to his name against Leicester after scoring for Leeds in a 1-1 draw last April, and he looks a decent price here to make it back-to-back strikes in the FA Cup.

Check out the rest of our Football Betting Tips here.