This season's FA Cup just keeps on delivering shocks.
Third-tier Port Vale pulled off a massive upset on Sunday by beating Premier League Sunderland 1-0 to advance to the quarterfinals of the historic competition. That was after Championship side Southampton knocked out another top-flight team with a 1-0 win against Fulham.
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Fulham's Rodrigo Muniz attempts an overhead kick during the English FA Cup fifth round soccer match between Fulham and Southampton in London, Sunday March 8, 2026. (John Walton/PA via AP)
Southampton's Ross Stewart, left, celebrates scoring during the English FA Cup fifth round soccer match between Fulham and Southampton in London, Sunday March 8, 2026. (John Walton/PA via AP)
Port Vale's Ben Waine scores his side's first goal of the game, during the FA Cup fifth round soccer match between Sunderland and Port Vale, in Stoke on Trent, England, Sunday March 8, 2026. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
Port Vale's Ben Waine celebrates with teammates after scoring his side's first goal of the game, during the FA Cup fifth round soccer match between Sunderland and Port Vale, in Stoke on Trent, England, Sunday March 8, 2026. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
Port Vale's Ben Waine celebrates after scoring his side's first goal of the game during the FA Cup fifth round soccer match between Sunderland and Port Vale, in Stoke on Trent, England, Sunday March 8, 2026. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
Port Vale is bottom of League One and 57 places below Sunderland. But the West Midlands team booked its place alongside giants Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea in the last eight courtesy of Ben Waine’s looping first half header.
It was the latest giant-killing in a season that already saw sixth-tier Macclesfield eliminate titleholder Crystal Palace in what was officially the biggest upset in FA Cup history.
Port Vale - the lowest ranked team left in the competition - is situated less than 20 miles from Macclesfield and proved every bit as inhospitable for Premier League opposition.
“It probably hasn’t sunk in really. I’m in a little bit of shock about that result today," Port Vale manager Jon Brady told TNT Sports. "Not that I didn’t believe we could do it, but you need a lot of things going your way.”
Brady and his players only secured their place in the fifth round by beating Championship side Bristol City five days earlier, with Waine scoring the winner in that match as well.
“I know it wasn’t pretty to watch, probably not the best game to watch, but we dug in so hard and I think we deserved it,” said Waine, who headed in from close range in the 28th minute. “We stuck to the game plan - as simple as that.”
The draw for the quarterfinals is on Monday.
Ross Stewart's 91st-minute penalty sealed victory for Southampton at Craven Cottage.
The game was heading to extra time when Joachim Andersen brought down Finn Azaz in the box late on. Stewart stepped up and blasted past Fulham goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte.
Fulham coach Marco Silva paid the price for making nine changes to his starting lineup and leaving out star players like Raul Jimenez, Antonee Robinson and Alex Iwobi.
Victory continues Southampton's impressive surge under coach Tonda Eckert, who has transformed the club's fortunes since taking charge in November.
The team, which was relegated from the Premier League last season, was battling for survival in the Championship when former coach Will Still was fired. Under Eckert it has risen up the standings and is competing for a place in the playoffs.
“Overall, in the 90 minutes it’s deserved that we go to the next round,“ he told the BBC. “(We) just need to use this game as fuel for the games coming up.”
Leeds broke the sequence of upsets by beating Norwich 3-0 at Elland Road.
For Leeds coach Daniel Farke it was a reunion with his former club, which he twice led to promotion to the Premier League.
First-half goals from Sean Longstaff and Gabriel Gudmundsson put the home team in control by the break, with Joel Piroe adding a third in the 85th.
West Ham plays Brentford in the last match of the fifth round on Monday.
James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Fulham's Rodrigo Muniz attempts an overhead kick during the English FA Cup fifth round soccer match between Fulham and Southampton in London, Sunday March 8, 2026. (John Walton/PA via AP)
Southampton's Ross Stewart, left, celebrates scoring during the English FA Cup fifth round soccer match between Fulham and Southampton in London, Sunday March 8, 2026. (John Walton/PA via AP)
Port Vale's Ben Waine scores his side's first goal of the game, during the FA Cup fifth round soccer match between Sunderland and Port Vale, in Stoke on Trent, England, Sunday March 8, 2026. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
Port Vale's Ben Waine celebrates with teammates after scoring his side's first goal of the game, during the FA Cup fifth round soccer match between Sunderland and Port Vale, in Stoke on Trent, England, Sunday March 8, 2026. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
Port Vale's Ben Waine celebrates after scoring his side's first goal of the game during the FA Cup fifth round soccer match between Sunderland and Port Vale, in Stoke on Trent, England, Sunday March 8, 2026. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran named Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of its late supreme leader, the Islamic Republic’s next ruler on Monday, putting a hard-line cleric in charge as the war spreading across the Middle East sent oil prices skyrocketing with Iran launching new attacks on regional energy infrastructure.
With Iran’s theocracy under assault by the United States and Israel for more than a week, the country’s Assembly of Experts chose the secretive, 56-year-old cleric with close ties to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as the new supreme leader. The Guard has been firing missiles and drones at Israel and Gulf Arab states since the younger Khamenei’s father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed Feb. 28 during the war’s opening salvo.
Iran's stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz has also all but stopped tankers from using the shipping lane between the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman through which a fifth of the world's oil is carried. Brent crude oil, the international standard, surged to more than $114 a barrel on Monday, some 60% higher than when Israel and the United States first attacked Iran.
As global concerns grew over economic effect, U.S. President Donald Trump downplayed the spike in prices as temporary.
“Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace," Trump wrote on social media.
Iran has been firing on Israel and American bases in the region since the start of the war, but has also been launching missiles and drones at energy and water infrastructure.
On Monday, a fire broke out at an oil facility that was attacked in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted several drones attacking the Shaybah oil field.
Israel, meantime, said it was launching new airstrikes on central Iran.
The younger Khamenei, who had not been seen or heard from publicly since the war started, had long been considered a potential successor. That was even before the Israeli strike killed his father, and despite never being elected or appointed to a government position.
There appeared to be some dissension over his selection. Political figures within Iran criticized the idea of handing over the supreme leader's title based on heredity and thereby creating a clerical version of the rule of the shah, who was toppled during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But top clerics in the Assembly of Experts likely wanted Khamenei to prosecute the war.
Khamenei, who is believed to hold views that are even more hard-line than his late father, now will be in charge of Iran's armed forces and any decision regarding Tehran's nuclear program.
While the country's key nuclear sites are in tatters after the United States bombed them during the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June, there's still highly enriched uranium in Iran that's a technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Khamenei could choose to do what his father never did — build a nuclear bomb.
Israel has already described him as a potential target, while Trump had called him “unacceptable.”
“We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” Trump had said.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard issued a statement expressing support, as did the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Top Iranian security official Ali Larijani, speaking to Iranian state television, praised the Assembly of Experts for “courageously” convening even as airstrikes continued in Tehran. He said the younger Khamenei had been trained by his father and “can handle this situation.”
Saudi Arabia lashed out at Iran following a thwarted drone attack on its massive Shaybah oil field, saying Tehran would be the “biggest loser” if it continues to attack Arab states.
The Foreign Ministry said Iranian attacks mean “further escalation which will have grave impact on the relations, currently and in the future.”
In addition to targeting energy facilities also in the UAE, Iran on Monday also attacked Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, where it hit a residential area wounding 32 people, including several children, according to authorities.
Bahrain has also accused Iran of damaging one of its desalination plants, though its electricity and water authority said supplies remained online. Desalination plants supply water to millions of residents in the region and thousands of stranded travelers, raising new fears of catastrophic risks in parched desert nations.
On Monday, Bahrain’s state oil company declared force majeure for its oil shipments, state-run Bahrain News Agency reported, a legal maneuver that releases a company of its contractual obligations because of extraordinary circumstances. It insisted that local demand could still be met.
In Iraq, air defenses show down a drone as it attacked a U.S. military compound inside the Baghdad International Airport, a security source told the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
There were no reported injuries or damage and it was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, but Pro-Iranian Iraqi militias have previously targeted the base.
Elsewhere, the U.S. military had said a service member died of injuries from an Iranian attack on troops in Saudi Arabia on March 1. Seven U.S. soldiers have now been killed.
The U.S. State Department early Monday ordered nonessential personnel and families of all staff to leave Saudi Arabia following the escalation in attacks.
Eight other U.S. diplomatic missions have ordered all but key staff to leave: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the consulate in Karachi, Pakistan.
The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, at least 397 in Lebanon and at least 11 in Israel, according to officials. Israel reported its first soldier deaths Sunday, saying two were killed in southern Lebanon, where its military is fighting Hezbollah.
Rising reported from Bangkok and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press journalists Sam Metz in Ramallah, West Bank, Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut, Lebanon, Aamer Madhani in Doral, Florida, and Qassem Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed reporting.
A man carries shoes from his destroyed house that was hit by Israeli airstrikes hit several houses in Sir al-Gharbiyeh village south Lebanon, Sunday, March, 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Residents look on and take pictures as flames and smoke rise from an oil storage facility struck as attacks hit the city during the U.S.–Israeli military campaign in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 7, 2026. (Alireza Sotakbar/ISNA via AP)
Two women from the Iranian Red Crescent Society stand as a thick plume of smoke from a U.S.-Israeli strike on an oil storage facility late Saturday rises in the sky in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
This image taken from video provided by Iran state TV shows Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran's slain supreme leader, who has been named as the Islamic Republic's next ruler, authorities announced Monday, March 9, 2026. (Iran state TV via AP)
