FA Cup or Champions League qualification - which means more?

FA Cup semi-final bosses Unai Emery (left), Nuno Espirito Santo (centre) and Pep Guardiola are all hoping to qualify for the Champions League

It's a big weekend for Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Manchester City, who are getting ready to play in the semi-finals of the FA Cup at Wembley.

Three of the four - Forest, Villa and City - are also chasing top-five Premier League finishes that will secure a Champions League place next season.

But what matters more - winning the FA Cup or qualifying for the Champions League?

On Saturday, Crystal Palace take on Aston Villa in the first semi-final at 17:15 BST, a match you can watch live on BBC One, iPlayer, BBC Sport website and app.

The following day Nottingham Forest face Manchester City at 16:30 for a place in the final.

While the winners of English football's showpiece final at Wembley on 17 May are guaranteed a major trophy - as well as a place in next season's Europa League - a top-five finish in the Premier League guarantees at least eight games in Europe's elite club competition.

But which is more important?

"The chance of a trophy is massive, regardless of anything else that is going on," former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha argues.

"Lifting silverware gives truly iconic moments.

"That is the stuff that you remember. For years to come fans recall the starting XIs, the squads, the managers, the run - everything."

Major trophy - or Champions League cash?

This season's FA Cup has produced its fair share of surprises leading to a somewhat unfamiliar look to this weekend's semi-finals.

Record 14-time winners Arsenal went out in the third round, Premier League champions-in-waiting Liverpool came unstuck at Plymouth in the fourth round, while last season's winners Manchester United lost on penalties to Fulham at Old Trafford in the fifth round.

Crystal Palace are the only one of the four remaining teams not to have won the FA Cup.

But while Manchester City have won two of the past six finals, it's been more than 60 years since Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest lifted the prestigious trophy.

Villa might be seven-time winners but their last FA Cup triumph was in 1956-57.

Two-time winners Forest have won the European Cup on two occasions since they last won the FA Cup win in 1958-59.

The FA Cup final, watched by a global television audience of millions, is full of pomp and prestige, while the winners get to claim a major trophy in front of their fans at the national stadium.

From a financial point of view, however, it is small change compared to the riches of the Champions League.

'Winning the FA Cup is eternal'

Aston Villa have earned a total of £910,000 in FA prize money for defeating West Ham, Tottenham, Cardiff and Preston in this season's FA Cup. They received £8.85m for winning five Champions League league-phase games this season.

While reaching the Champions League last 16 also earned clubs an additional £9.27m each, Villa, Forest, City or Crystal Palace will receive just £2m in prize money if they win next month's FA Cup final.

Forest's last match in European football's premier club competition was in October 1980 when it was known as the European Cup before being rebranded the Champions League.

With five games to play, Nuno Espirito Santo's team sit fourth in the Premier League table with a three-point cushion between themselves and sixth-placed Chelsea.

"I want to be an FA Cup romantic, but Champions League football would provide such a big windfall that it offers a much better opportunity for establishing a strong foundation for future success," Forest fan Ben tells BBC Sport.

Fellow Forest fan Simon has a different view.

"Yes, European football brings in cash. But winning a cup is eternal," he says.

"Look at the joy of Newcastle fans - they will remember this year more fondly than the year they made the top four."

Onuoha adds: "These are pinch-yourself moments for the Forest fans and if they get one and not the other, they can decide how they feel about that afterwards."

FA Cup semi-finalists Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa are all in the race to qualify for next season's Champions League

'We play to be in the top five'

Villa are desperate for more more big European nights under the floodlights after memorable wins over the likes of Bayern Munich, Bologna and Celtic.

Having lost 5-4 on aggregate to Paris St-Germain in the quarter-finals, Unai Emery's side must finish in the top five to play in next season's Champions League.

They currently lie seventh, two points off fifth having played one game more than the three teams immediately above them. Their goal difference is also inferior compared to their rivals.

Villa, however, are two wins from a first major trophy since Brian Little's team defeated Leeds United in the 1996 League Cup final.

Do they go all-out to win the FA Cup - or make finishing in the top five the priority?

"Of course the Premier League is our priority," said Villa boss Emery after his team's 2-1 league defeat at Manchester City on Tuesday.

"We play in the Premier League to be in the top five."

This weekend Villa will play in their first FA Cup semi-final for 10 years and more than 30,000 of their fans are expected to be at Wembley to see them play Palace.

Emery added: "It's special to play in semi-finals. It's something we achieved with hard work. Now we must continue it."

Onuoha believes the FA Cup semi-final is Villa's biggest game of the season.

"We saw with Newcastle what seeing your team lift silverware can mean to supporters and sometimes it's a once in a lifetime type thing," he added.

"Villa will want a chance to try and lift the trophy. You could very much make the case that it is the biggest game of their whole season so far.

"I think at times it is maybe taken for granted in this modern age of the financial power of Champions League qualification.

"The game is massive, the players will know it's massive, all those fans travelling down to Wembley will know it's massive.

"You can say the whole season could ride on this semi-final, and in some ways maybe it does. But isn't that always the case when you get a chance to play for silverware?"

'Important to win semi-final - but Champions League is main goal'

Incredibly, this is the seventh successive season Manchester City have appeared at this stage of the FA Cup.

They've gone on to reach three finals, winning two of them in 2019 and 2023.

Yet missing out on the Champions League would be a huge blow for City and manager Pep Guardiola, who said "we haven't done anything special with just one" after being crowned champions of Europe for the first time in 2023.

City sit third in the table on 61 points, four more than sixth-placed Chelsea, who have one game in hand.

"Guardiola has spent a lot of this season making the point about how good this team has been in years gone by - like reaching seven FA Cup semi-finals in a row," said Onuoha.

"Many teams have not reached seven in their whole history so he has been more defiant in how he speaks about his team.

"He wants to make sure that people understand where he is coming from, where the club is coming from, how good they have been in years gone by, and how he still believes in the team."

The last time City failed to appear in the Champions League was way back in 2010-11 and Portuguese midfielder Matheus Nunes said qualifying for the competition was the number one priority in the final weeks of the season.

"It's important to go and win the semi-final, but I think our main goal is the Premier League, to try to qualify for the Champions League," Nunes said after the midweek league win over Villa.

"We are not looking to the FA Cup as a secondary thing, but our main focus is to win the remaining four league games."