Stoke City Vs. Bolton Wanderers, FA Cup Semi-Final: Tony Pulis’s Men Notch Incredible 5-0 Victory

If Stoke City were going to make it through to the FA Cup Final, most people would have guessed that they defeated Bolton Wanderers on penalties, or at least on a set piece. Stoke are not necessarily the negative, ball hoofing team they were when they first joined the Premier League, but they’re still a defense first side, and against an attack-oriented Bolton Wanderers side, most would have guessed that Stoke would commit the majority of their team to keeping their opponents off the scoreboard. Oh, how wrong we were.

Bolton were downright terrible on Sunday afternoon at Wembley, succumbing to am embarrassing 5-0 defeat at the hands of a team who are a often the inspiration for jokes about negative football. The combination of Bolton’s ineptness and Stoke’s attacking ability were seriously out of character for both teams, and the match was the kind we’ll all remember when we’re old and grey. When I’m 90 years old, it’s likely I’ll be siting in a retirement home asking people “Do you remember that game?” The guy next to me will say “Isn’t the FA Cup what the cyborgs play?” and I’ll pretend I didn’t hear him as I sip my apple juice.

Yeah, that score is a real thing. At halftime of the FA Cup Semi-Final between Stoke City and Bolton Wanderers, Tony Pulis’s men lead by an incredible three goals to none. They scored all three of their goals in the first 30 minutes, and there seems to be no way back for Bolton. Both of the first two goals were completely preventable, and came as a result of their own errors.

The first goal came from Matthew Etherington, who scored on a fantastic long-range effort in the 11th minute. Paul Robinson made an inexcusable poor pass deep in his own end, completely missing Johan Elmander, and Etherington capitalized with an unstoppable shot.

Apparently, Owen Coyle no longer believes in central midfielders. Based on the way they’ve played throughout the season, everyone’s best guess is that his team will line up in a 4-4-2, but he’s selected three true forwards and two true wingers. Okay, so it’s not that weird, he did it last week, but it’s an interesting response to Stuart Holden’s absence. Johan Elmander has played on the right for Bolton plenty of times this year, but based on this selection, he’s probably an attacking midfielder at the tip of a diamond.

Stoke? Well, they’re Stoke.

Delap has just sign a new contract extension that will keep him at Stoke until 2013, which rather sums up the whole club. They have excellent pacy player who can take advantage of slip-ups down the right, tall forward who’ll bully defences in the air, and a back line more than happy to lay in crunching tackles left and right to keep their opponents at bay. Stoke are, well, Stokey, and they do it better than almost anybody else.

Bolton cannot reasonably harbour expectations of qualifying for Europe through their league position - only 5th and above will be good enough this season - but with Manchester City expected to at least qualify for the Europa League via a top-five finish the losing FA Cup finalists (should they indeed lose to City) will also receive a Europa League berth. For Stoke, that would be a luxury, but for Bolton it would represent a very real step forward for the club’s ambitions.That said, both teams would love to add the FA Cup to their collections, and each has a decent chance of lifting the trophy against Manchester City should they manage to make it through tomorrow’s match.