Sheffield United head to Wembley FA Cup semi-final full of excitement, not fear, says Paul Heckingbottom

The Blades take on Manchester City on Saturday for a place in their first FA Cup final since 1936.

Their opponents' 10-match winning streak came to an end in Bayern Munich on Wednesday when they claimed the 1-1 draw that saw them through to the European Cup semi-finals. On Wednesday they play a virtual Premier League title decider at home to Arsenal.

For this game to be sitting in between them could influence Pep Guardiola’s team selection but as Heckingbottom said: “He'll just play his other 11 internationals!”

The leading bookmakers have Championship Sheffield United between 14/1 and 20/1 to win Saturday's two-horse race, which will be decided on the day.

But their defining game will come on Wednesday, when victory at home to Bristol City can secure automatic promotion back to the top flight. Wembley is a day to be enjoyed, not endured.

"We know how tough the opponents are but there's no fear for us. What have we got to lose?" said Heckingbottom, who will be without midfielders Tommy Doyle and James McAtee, on loan from City.

"It's a game of football, we've got to attack it.

"The players know if we're coming in at half-time and I don't think we've made tackles or got up to the ball and we've been passive, I won't be happy about it. We have to try and play our game and we know the majority may be without the ball but so what?

"We have to be really aggressive to try and control where they play and when we get the ball we have to be brave and composed enough to make passes and try and hurt them."

After dropping below their own exceptionally high standards at times earlier in the season, Guardiola's side are coming to the boil.

"We know they're going to have to have off-days, one or two of their players, key moments are going to have to go for us and we're going to have to respond really well in these moments and we're going to have to have almost the perfect 90, 95, 120 minutes, whatever it may be," warned Heckingbottom.

"But stranger things have happened. We go there with the intention of performing as well as we possibly can and whatever happens, happens.

"You can overcomplicate it. We know how we play and how we want to deal with City. We know man for man we're going to have to be at our best and also covering.

"The good thing is we've got players who've faced City before and while we've not been on the right end of the result yet.

"They're only people. One of them (John Stones) is a lad I've known since he was 15. There's other players I know well.

"They're footballers – that's it – they're just damn good footballers. Pep's a bloke, he's just a damn good manager with an unbelievable record.

"We're just playing against the best. Why wouldn't we want to test ourselves against the best?

"I wouldn't know what word to use but it's certainly not fear, it's not even an aura, we just know we're playing against the best and we want to test ourselves against the best."

Heckingbottom has tried to use the FA Cup as a break from the pressure of league football and it has been full of entertaining games.

"I think we've got a squad of players who like the FA Cup," argued their manager. "You only had to watch us at Wrexham away with 10 men when we were losing to know how much we wanted to win the game but a lot of that stems from our approach every day anyway, whether it's a training game, a friendly game, a league game or a cup game. We want to win.

"There's been a real enjoyment and a good story for us in the FA Cup and that's ended with us so far getting to a semi-final against the team probably no one else wanted to play. Let's see if we can make another story.

"To be at this stage of the season, mid- going on back end of April, and we're in the top two in the Championship and the last four of the FA Cup. It's a really big achievement.

"But we've enjoyed the games. The performance at Milwall in the third round was excellent.

"We had two really entertaining games that captured not only fans of Sheffield United and Wrexham but football fans generally when they were televised.

"We followed that with a big win over Spurs in a cracking atmosphere at Bramall Lane, then a ding-dong of a quarter-final against Blackburn. Our run has had a bit of everything and it's been enjoyable.

"Running that alongside trying to chase a promotion and the slog of what the Championship is, playing two games a week virtually all season, there's lots of things where we've had to get right. The players have had to dig deep at moments."

The winners play Manchester United or Brighton and Hove Albion, who meet on Sunday, in June's final. If it is the Blades, that could mean four weeks between their penultimate and last game of 2022-23.

It is a problem they would love to have to deal with.