\n
Ethan Ampadu is relishing chance to face former club Chelsea in Sunday’s FA Cup semi final – and make some happy memories for change<\/h2>\n <\/p>\n\n
\n
\nEthan Ampadu faces off against former side Chelsea when in Sunday’s FA Cup semi<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n
<\/button><\/p>\n
Ethan Ampadu admits he has some old scores to settle when he captain’s Leeds United in Sunday’s crunch FA Cup semi final showdown with managerless Chelsea.<\/p>\n
For starters, Ampadu will be going up against one of his former clubs. One he helped reach the Europa League final back in 2019, but failed to play in the showpiece game when Chelsea beat Arsenal in Baku to lift the trophy.<\/p>\n
Ampadu spent the next few seasons going on four different loan moves to Sheffield United and around Europe, before joining Leeds in a \u00a37m deal in 2023. And in his first season with the Yorkshire club, Ampadu suffered the heartbreak of losing the Championship play-off final to Southampton.<\/p>\n
Ampadu finally made it back to the big time after helping Leeds reach the top flight 12 months later. And while the Wales international would prefer to look forward than back, he knows he can never escape his past.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Leeds United star in disagreement with Daniel Farke ahead of FA Cup semi-final<\/span><\/span>READ MORE: Chelsea star’s ‘brutal nickname’ for Liam Rosenior and cutting jibes from players<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nHe said: “I can understand why people might dwell on my past, but that\u2019s gone. I\u2019m here with Leeds. I had some good memories (at Chelsea). I didn’t manage to play in that Europa League final, so maybe that one is a little bit different. But hopefully I get a chance to play in this one.<\/p>\n
“You have to become resilient, remember what you are doing it for and to create those good moments. For me they haven\u2019t come around too often. We\u2019ve been enjoying some here, but what I love about this place is we are striving to achieve a lot more. So hopefully this could be the start for something special, but it’s taken a lot to get here.”<\/p>\n
This weekend’s clash will be just the second time Ampadu has returned to Wembley since that pain of 2024. He was in the Wales side that lost 3-0 to England there in October.<\/p>\n
He said: “With Leeds United, that’s our last memory there. But you have to park that, you have to remember how you felt – and do everything you can to try to avoid that feeling again.<\/p>\n
“When you walk out, you understand what Wembley comes with, all the memories that have happened there. But we are there to try to make more for ourselves.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n\n
\n
\nEthan Ampadu has some old scores to settle this weekend (Image: Photo by Ed Sykes\/Getty Images)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/button><\/div>\n
Chelsea might start as favourites, despite their recent troubles, but Ampadu has warned his rivals Leeds are not just heading to London for a day out, or to make up the numbers.<\/p>\n
And he has urged those fanatical supporters making the trip to Wembley, to do everything in their power to help Daniel Farke’s side get to what would be the club’s first FA Cup final since 1972.<\/p>\n
He added: “We don\u2019t just want to be there for it to be a big day. We are going there with an aim.<\/p>\n
“We know it\u2019s going to be a difficult game, but we know what we can bring to this game, the confidence we have in this squad and our ability to get to that final.<\/p>\n
“Honestly, I want the fans to just be themselves. Wherever we go, no matter what stadium, no matter how far they\u2019ve got to travel, they are always there in their numbers, with their loud voices.<\/p>\n
“My message to them would be to be themselves, be loud, get behind us, because we are going to try to make it another special day.”<\/p>\n
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ethan Ampadu is relishing chance to face former club Chelsea in Sunday’s FA Cup semi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}