The FA Cup semi-finals kick off this weekend (Picture: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

The FA Cup will return this weekend for the eagerly-anticipated semi-finals.

Championship side Sheffield United will face Manchester City, before Manchester United takes on Brighton Hove Albion.

Man U fans will be hoping for a repeat on 1983 when the team triumphed over Brighton in the semi-finals of the FA Cup with Gordon Smith missing a last-minute penalty for Brighton.

But what happens if the games end in a draw after 90 minutes?

Here’s what you need to know.

Will the FA Cup semi-finals go to extra time or straight to penalties?

If an FA Cup semi-final game finishes in a draw after 90 minutes, it will first go to extra time.

If after 30 minutes of extra time, the teams are still level, the game will then go to penalties to determine which team progresses through to the final.

Manchester City will face Sheffield United (Picture: Getty)

At this stage, both teams will see who can score more out of an initial five penalties.

If they are still level after all of this, sudden death penalties begin, where the first team to go ahead after an equal number of spot-kicks wins.

Games will not head to replays after they were scrapped to ease fixture congestion from round five onwards.

Replays were first scrapped from the quarter-final stage onwards in 2016.

The FA released a statement in December to announce that there would be no replays for the third and fourth round in 2021/22 to ease fixture congestion caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

‘This exceptional decision was approved by the FA Board on Friday 17 December and has been taken in the wider interest of English football to alleviate the possibility of fixture congestion, following several postponements in recent days and continued uncertainty ahead due to Covid-19,’ the FA said.

‘Ties in the third and fourth rounds of this season’s competition will be played to a finish on the day, with extra-time and penalty shootouts if required.’

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The crucial games are here.